#FindsFriday – Clay pipe

For #FindsFriday this week we’ve decided to show off a later find than usual with this lovely collection of clay tobacco pipes.

Tobacco was introduced to Britain in the 16th century, and as such any clay tobacco pipes found on site can help give us a terminus post quem (or earliest possible date). The cost of tobacco when it was initially imported was very high, and as such the clay pipes that were used to smoke were much smaller. As tobacco became cheaper, the clay pipes became larger and were sometimes intricately decorated. Some were even stamped with the name and location of the maker.

A lot of the clay pipes that we find on site end up just being fragments of the stem, but this collection from our work at the former bus depot on Queen Street includes both plain and decorated bowls!

A collection of clay pipes found at our Queen Street excavation

Some of the clay pipes laid out to show off their shape.

A later clay pipe with a makers mark