Launch of the Chance Glassworks Heritage Trust

This afternoon, the Chance Glassworks Heritage Trust launched at the Sandwell Council offices in Smethwick, near Birmingham.

The Trust is the brainchild of local businessman Mark Davies, who quickly assembled a first class team of professional advisers and a board representing diverse interests with a strong commitment to rejuvenating this historic site. I was honoured to be invited to act as Patron of the Trust, being the great great great nephew of founder Robert Lucas Chance.

The Trust's website can be viewed here.

The launch featured the premiere of a video promoting the Trust, and a workshop open to members of the public interested in learning about the Trust's vision and plans. View the video on YouTube and the History West Midlands website which has much more detail on Chance Brothers.

My thanks go out to Mark, Mike Gibbs of History West Midlands who sponsored the video production, the video producers IDM Media, Graham Fisher MBE who produces the Trust's website and newsletters, the board members, Sandwell Council and the many other individuals and organisations who have brought this ambitions project to where it is today.

The hard work of raising funds, completing the plans and appointing contractors now begins. Over the next few years this now derelict site will be transformed, as motorists driving along the elevated M5 motorway will witness to their growing amazement. The highlight, literally, will be a 30 metre lighthouse topped with an original Chance Brothers first order lens. Originally from the Butt of Lewis lighthouse and now restored to working order, the lens has been donated by the Scottish Lighthouse Board and in its new home will beam its light across the West Midlands - the furthest lighthouse from a coastline anywhere in the world!

When I began researching my book, Lighthouses: The race to illuminate the world in 2005 I could not have imagined twelve years later writing this blogpost. I have every confidence that twelve years on, I will be writing a new post describing the transformed site with all it offers for local residents, heritage enthusiasts, businesses and tourists alike.

Deo Non Fortuna!