fascinating small find from Williams & Griffin

On Friday (25th April), we excavated an almost-complete clay tobacco-pipe on our site within the Williams & Griffin store in the High Street at Colchester. We are currently excavating the remains of the iron foundry which stood on the site and was in operation from 1792 until 1920.

The pipe is inscribed with the words ‘J.W.Pettitt’ and ‘Colchester’, and we have identified the pipe maker as being James William Pettitt, one of the sons of James Pettitt of Colchester, also a pipe maker. James Pettitt had several sons – James William, George, Samuel and Nathan – and James William and George are known to have been involved in the pipe-making industry in Colchester. James William was active in the early 1860s, when he lived in East Street; he seems to have taken over his father’s business in 1863.

Sadly, the notice of James William Pettitt’s bankruptcy was published in The London Gazette on the 17th October 1865.

‘… James William Pettit, of Colchester, in the county of Essex, Pipe Maker, and Dealer in Tobacco and Lucifer Matches, having been adjudged bankrupt under a Petition for adjudication of Bankruptcy, filed in the County Court of Essex, holden at Colchesteri on the llth day of October, 1865, is hereby required to surrender himself to John Stuck Barnes, the Registrar of the said Court, at the first meeting of creditors to be held before the said Registrar, on the 28th day of October instant, at eleven o’clock in the forenoon precisely, at the County Court Office, Colchester …’

In 2000, the Trust found the bowl of a clay tobacco-pipe during our excavation at 29-39 Head Street (the former Post Office, now the new Odeon Cinema), which is inscribed with the initials ‘JP’ and decorated with oak leaves; this was probably made by James Pettitt.

Colchester was, apparently, one of the pipe-making centres of Essex, along with Saffron Walden and Romford.

This pipe has staining at the break which suggests that it was used for smoking tobacco even after some of the long stem broke or was broken off, perhaps by someone who worked at the foundry, and then thrown away or lost.

The image shows the pipe from both sides, with the words ‘J.W.Pettitt’ and ‘Colchester’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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