NDAS Clay Pipes

This is not a treatise in favour of pipe-smoking even though as Sam Slick the clockmaker said, the pipe …"has made more good men, good husbands, kind masters, indulgent fathers than any other blessed thing on this universal earth." Nor is it a call for the return to the days when every good archaeologist clenched a pipe between his teeth (Wheeler, Mallowan and Seton- Williams to name but a few).

No, the title refers to the fact that there is no finer dating tool in post-medieval contexts than the humble clay pipe. It is not uncommon for them to provide a narrow time-span of 20 years and in one case (as we shall see) as little as eight years. Their ubiquity is reflected in the fact that my grandfather could remember them being given away with a pint of beer in pubs and being discarded as commonly as cigarette ends. In addition, they are relatively easy to categorise in terms of size and shape and can therefore at a glance be given a broad date range.

Basically, the earliest bowls are smaller and the angle of stem to bowl is greater (cf. fig. 1). In the eighteenth century, incised or stamped decoration of stems and bowls became more widespread with moulded or relief decoration developing in the second half of the century and becoming the norm in the nineteenth century.

Sometimes the name, town or date will be evident but more often the initials of the maker are the main identifier. The usual practice (on the spur; cf. fig 2) was for the initial of the Christian name to be on the left (looking from stem to bowl) and surname on the right. So a nineteenth century bowl with the initials WS found locally would probably have originated in Bideford at the hands of William Short.

Lists of makers' names are becoming more comprehensive as excavation and documentary research add to our knowledge.We are informed for instance, that a Peter Stevens was apprenticed as a pipe-maker in Barnstaple in 1647 and bowls dating to c.1670 with the initials PS on the base of the spur have been found.

The most thorough catalogue of North Devon pipes can be found in Alison Grant and David Jemmett's contribution in BAR 146 (see below) but a few interesting examples will be detailed here.

The 'eglantine' (sweet briar) mark is often associated with Plymouth where several examples have been found. The design, originally thought to be Dutch, became fairly debased or stylised (cf. fig 3) and several N. Devon examples appear to be crude derivatives. If they are of local manufacture the connection with ports cannot be coincidental.

One of the most common Barnstaple marks is 'Barum' (see fig. 4), found on flat-heeled spurs of bowls. These have turned up in Plymouth in a deposit sealed c. 1740 and as far afield as Worcester. Grant and Jemmet give them a broad date range of 1660 -1740 and it is far better to be conservative rather than be too specific. One web site, for instance, confidently states that scallop designs (see below re: Seldon's) are 'typical' of the period 1820-1840. Stylistic considerations however, should always be considered alongside typologies, marks, excavated evidence and, of course, regional variations. All these factors came together with the publication of a particularly informative excavation in Alexandra Road, Barnstaple in 1986. During trial trenching prior to redevelopment, the pipe factory of John Seldon was located. Documentary evidence, allied to the locating of kiln debris, 1,500 complete bowls and 40,000 stem fragments, have ensured a remarkably complete picture of this industry.

The factory (usefully for us) was short-lived however, with a lifespan of just eight years from 1857 - 1865. Production must have been prolific, for a while at least, as bowls have been found during South West Archaeology excavations at Charlestown Barton (fig. 5) and at Totnes Mansion House (fig. 6). The latter example is a moulded bowl of fine quality with the initials 'JS' being those of the owner.

Of necessity, this is a quick overview of the humble clay pipe; for further reading and information the following should be consulted:
Bibliography:
Ayto, E.G: Clay Tobacco Pipes (Shire Album 37, 1979): an excellent introduction.
Oswald, A: Marked Clay Pipes from Plymouth, Devon (Post-Medieval Archaeology 3, 1969): a fascinating study of the influence of trade on local manufacture of pipes.
Terry, R: The Barnstaple Clay Tobacco Pipe Factory (NDDC Rescue Arch. Unit): an excellent (but undated) booklet describing the rescue excavation of Seldon's pipe factory in 1986.
There are numerous BAR (British Archaeological Review) volumes on clay pipes but attention is drawn to two in particular:
Grant, A. and Jemmet, D: Pipes and Pipemaking in Barnstaple, Devon, in Davey, P. (ed),
The Archaeology of the Clay Tobacco Pipe (BAR 146, 1985): a useful catalogue and overview of North Devon pipe finds and manufacturers.
Oswald, A: Clay Pipes for the Archaeologist (BAR 14, 1975): the first and still the essential handbook by one of the acknowledged experts.
Museums
Most museums have clay pipe collections. In this area both North Devon Museum, Barnstaple and Great Torrington Museum have good displays.