AN Alvechurch company which has brought glass blowing home to the Midlands is celebrating a year of production.

The English Antique Glass Co (EAG), based at Bordesley Hall, has attracted a lot of interest from the stained glass and antique furniture trades, among others, since it was featured in the Advertiser last March.

The family-run company is the only firm in the UK and Ireland to produce handmade flat glass from large, mouth-blown cylinders - a product which was made only in the north-east for many years.

EAG, run by Mike Tuffey, his wife Ann and daughter Alison, recently hosted the Midland section of the Society of Glass Technology's AGM and also put on demonstrations for the UK Institute of Conservators last week.

The institute held its AGM and conference at Bordesley Hall, off The Holloway, on Thursday so members could visit EAG, watch glassmaking demonstrations and inspect its product range.

Sunderland firm Hartley Wood and Co, an offshoot of the older and larger Wear Glass Works, was formed by brothers James and John Hartley in 1837 and the pair previously worked at the Chance factory in Smethwick where their father John was a managing partner.

Mr Tuffey, EAG's managing director, became interested in the glassmaking process as he supplied furnaces, mainly to glassmaking companies like Hartley Wood.

When Hartley Wood closed several years ago and Sunderland Glassworks went into liquidation, Mr Tuffey became involved with a retailer of antique flat glass and formed Acorn Manufacturing Ltd, which trades as The English Antique Glass Co and has a registered office at Church Green.

EAG bought the manufacturing equipment from the receivers of Sunderland Glassworks about three years ago, moved it to Bordesley Hall and retained two glassmakers who work for the firm.