Northern Glass Cone, Alloa Glass Works

Although glassmaking is an ancient process, it was carried out on a small scale until the development of industrialised methods in Europe allowed it to be mass-produced. The fusion of silica and sodium oxide in a furnace was usually achieved by the burning of wood; but coal was often used instead in Britain, which prompted the development of the glass cone.^[4] Glass cones consisted of a large central furnace, a flue to carry waste gas to the top of the structure and away, smaller furnaces around the walls to ensure the finished products stayed warm, and a circular platform on which workers stood while making their glassware. Although invented earlier, they became commonplace in the early 19th century; but further innovations in the glassmaking industry made the float glass production method more efficient and allowed manufacture to be based in fewer but larger works.^[5] Most cones were knocked down after they fell out of use, and by the mid-1970s only four survived:^[5] the Alloa cone (the only example in Scotland),^[3] Catcliffe Glass Cone in South Yorkshire, Lemington Glass Cone in Tyne and Wear, and Red House Cone in Wordsley, West Midlands.^[5]

On 10 November 1975, the structure was given the status of a scheduled ancient monument in accordance with the Ancient Monuments Acts of 1913 and 1931.^[6] It is one of 17 scheduled ancient monuments in Clackmannanshire.^[7]