The Glass Studio was established in 1968.
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00:00Well, we've been on the pier for 56 years. We came on in 1968 and we've stayed ever since.
00:11It's been quite a joy for us and quite an experience really over the years. We've met
00:18a lot of people and we've had a lot of fun and we've had a lot of interest and we're
00:23very grateful that people appreciate what we do. Overall, we've been very successful
00:32and it's rather sad that there's nobody to take over and we have to make a decision to
00:39draw a line eventually. None of us are getting any younger, I'm afraid.
00:45Well, one of the highlights when the old Duke of Edinburgh came on to open the Sovereign
00:52Lightship in the 70s and the then pier manager said, oh, we'll make you something when you
01:00come back and we made him a polo player on horseback and he was very grateful. He said,
01:06I hope you have a good season and one of his equestrians took it away. So we don't know
01:12what happened to that but we've also seen lots of celebrities over the years, Danny
01:19LaRue and we made a mini piano for Danny LaRue and we've seen lots and lots of different
01:25people over the years. Tennis stars who used to come on when it was a Pilkington's festival
01:31for the tennis and Arthur Lowe and Tommy Steele, Norman Wisdom.
01:41Well during the last fire we had, of course, we couldn't allow them to come on the pier
01:47so they set up a little pop-up shop for us on the front but of course we couldn't make
01:52but we could actually sell our models so we ran out that year because we couldn't actually
01:58make them off the pier but we could sell and that went on for about six months, I think.
02:03It was quite a long period that time, that fire. And the other fire we had was when the
02:09Blue Room, the theatre went up on fire which was set on deliberately, we understand, but
02:18that was the end of the pier show, as we know, it was Sandy Powell and the end of the pier
02:26show which was, end of pier shows are very famous. What am I going to do? I get asked
02:31that a lot and I don't really, I've got a lot of jobs obviously, jobs that need doing
02:37at home that haven't been done over the years but as long as I've got a good book and a good
02:42bottle of wine I think I'll be all right. And don't forget that glass blowers never retire,
02:48they just melt away.