Derek’s Dream

By Rosalind Copeland

My association with Hartley Woods began many years ago when I used to take in students from Swan Street College who came here to learn English, and this day I received a phone call from the college to ask if I would take in a Francis Fursco and I said yes. He arrived with his mother and father a few days later and that is when I realised, and they told me that they had bought the Hartley Wood glass manufacturing company. From that day on, my husband who was at the time doing a fine arts degree at the university, he needed the glass, and he got his glass from Hartley Woods and on many occasions he went down to the factory and I went along with him to see how the glass was manufactured and also to pick up the pieces that my husband needed for his degree. And from that day on I always had an interest in the glass and because of my work with Francis, I was given two vases as a thank you present which is now in the Glass Centre on exhibition for the next five years. Francis finally came to the end in my house after he could no longer go to college and from that day on he worked in the factory with the men who had been many years and I didn’t see him much after that, but my husband still kept in touch with him, and would take him out for a few pints on a Friday night and Francis would reminisce about his time at our home. But I always think of Hartley Woods as one of the main manufacturers of glass which went into Westminster Abbey, the House of Commons and a lot of other churches and it is very sad that it is now no longer there.