The rise & fall of York's Redfearn glassworks in 14 photos

Workers had been making glass on the site by Fishergate - where the Novotel sits now - for almost 200 years.

Our photos today take us back to the 1980s and the last years of the plant, which closed for good on December 23, 1983, costing the jobs of 300 workers just before Christmas.

Fishergate glassworks first opened in 1794 by Hampston & Prince to make flint glass and medicinal phials.

The York Flint Glass Company was set up in 1835, and in 1930 was incorporated as the National Glass Works (York), which became Redfearn National Glass in 1967.

By 1970, Redfearn National Glass was the third largest glass factory in the country, blowing more than 28 million pint milk bottles a year at its plants in York and Barnsley, with 3,000 employees between the two sites.

Demolition work at the Redfearn glass works in Fishergate, York

But by the 1980s, the company was loosing money and struggling to compete with the rise in non-glass containers. People had stopped having fresh milk delivered to the doorstep and recycling their glass bottles. Supermarket shopping and cartons of milk were becoming the norm.

In 1983, Redfearn chairman John Pratt said that the company had lost £1 million in six months from October 1982 to March 1983, and said price competition, the rise of non-glass containers and the recession were to blame.

The factory had three chimneys for many years, but they were replaced by a single 180ft chimney, to send emissions higher into the sky, cutting pollution.

In 1982, an extension was added, taking it to 235ft – making it the only structure in York taller than the Minster.

The chimney was brought down on April 20, 1986, following the demolition of the rest of the factory, and the Minster regained top spot in the city after the four-year interruption.

What are your memory of the York glassworks. Share your stories and photos in our nostalgia group in Facebook, Why We Love York - Memories - click here to join today.