Spindle Whorls, Beads and Pipes
The miscellaneous articles in terra cotta comprised "spindle whorls, beads, and smoking pipes. The first were of a bluish stone colour, flat and circular in form and with a moderate- sized perforation in the centre. The specimens I observed were, with one exception, nearly uniform in contour, only differing in their sharp or rounded edges, thus contrasting strongly with the numerous objects in lead of presumably analogeous purpose, as connected with the ancient spindle, which continued in use from the Roman or earlier times, down to the age of Elizabeth I although it is known that they are to this day used in remote parts of the African continent where spinning wheels are unaffordable.
A Thomas Bateman, a Derbyshire antiquary, who, in or around 1850, recorded the frequent occurrence of such perforated disks of clay on Roman sites, and considered it not improbable they might have been also used in some sedentary game. The Saxon cemeteries of Kent, again, discloses numbers of these articles; and it not unfrequently happens that the sex of the occupant of the grave is solely determined by the presence of the spindle-whorl, the remainder of the personal relics of the deceased, in Saxon fashion always accompanying the corpse, having been stolen or becoming decomposed.
In two cases the whorls had been made of pounded tile or brick, and retain a reddish colour; but the remainder was of fine clay, probably local blue marl. They have occasionally been thought manufactured from some fine porous stone; but this was proved to be a mistake. The upper bed of marl rested immediately beneath the main stratum of forest-bog yet cropped out in several spots along the beach. The beads of terra-cotta approach more nearly to the shape of an orange than any of the last-named objects, and generally presented a remarkably and apparently un-necessarily large perforation, considering their use, was chiefly that of gauds, or central beads of rosaries; most probably the orifices had been enlarged by the friction of long continued use.
Tobacco-pipes
Very small pipes are found all over these islands, some very nice bowls which have been separated from the stem are often found by metal detectorists when recovering artifacts or seen on flattened ploughed land, which gives some indication of use in the past. Some, of them can be certainly dated by the stamp impression at the lower extremity of the bowl. In Ireland they were known as Fairy pipes or Dane pipes. The name is of no importance, and no inference can be founded upon it; for the Irish, apparently, attributed anything unusully small to the fairies, and anything very ancient or inexplicable to the Danes, We are referring these beliefs to before 19th century.
But the question has never been decided, that is to say satisfactorily, whether they were very ancient or comparitively modern for the time. It may be confusing to the reader that pipes, as we are aware of, could be of ancient origin. The opinion is that few, if any, were more than c. 1500.
On the one hand, it is certain that the fumes of burning plants were inhaled, medicinally and for pleasure, centuries before the time of Raleigh, and in various, countries of the old continent of North Africa, as well as our own. It is also clear that the widely extended use of some narcotic by mankind shows a natural demand for it in certain circumstances of the human constitution. To this earlier use of some of the well-known vegetable subtances, it is possible and even probable that a few of the older and smaller forms may be attributed; thus that the theory of high antiquity, in regard to the smoking-pipe, is not altogether erronous.
On the other hand, it is certain that the use of American tobacco in this country commenced in the reign of Elizabeth I, about 1585; that it spread with great rapidity, and attracted much attention; that numerous factories for the manufacture of tobacco-pipes were soon established; and that a very large percentage of the examples met with, extended no further back than the sixteenth century.
Few asserted that the smoking-tube (used in connection with some substance) was then manufactured for the first time; the argument was, that from that date it came into extensive use, and in the forms with which we are now familiar. There is thus both negative and possitive evidence, the details of which it is impossible to give here, that smoking-tubes or pipes were known in the British islands before the time of Elizabeth I. I am not aware of any being recovered form ploughed land by detectorists; should there be any information rearding the recovery of such articles that can be dated as before 1585 I would be pleased to know of its existence.
The early pipes, even those, which we know to have been employed in connection with tobacco, were distinguished by a small bowl, but that fact may not have arisen solely from the scarcity of the material consumed. The tobacco-pipe, as we see it represented in old pictures, had a stem of five or six inches in length, but those mentioned that are found from time to time are usually fragments, the stem being rarely more than one inch or less in length. Certain Indians of North America gave the name tabak to the name to the island of Tobago; and by changing a voice consonant to a voiceless one (or the sound of G to that of K, we have the term tobacco. There was strong evidence that it was was extensively used in the neighbourhood of Meols during the 18th century. In 1787, every man, woman and almost every boy and girl, in the village of Formby near Liverpool smoked at nearly all hours and in all places, and it appeared an affection of singularity to be without it, even when in church.
The reason which they assigned the prevalence of the custom was, that many years before, a ship laden with tobacco had been stranded on the adjoining sands, and that the large quantity procured from the wreck, by country people, had wedded them all to the habit. My own experience with a vegetable tobacco, such was the shortage of theproper leaf, during the war of 1939-45. It was soon telegraphed that the tobacconist had managed to stock up his shelves with popular brands and I would make it known very swiftly to my father to whom the tobacconist was very friendly and I was immediately despatched with the money to purchase same. I would also include my allocation- 1oz. for 2d (one new penny). The obnoxiuos material was not illegal, even to the youngest; it resembled a burning bonfire.
Referring back to the previous paragraph, at the date assigned, the marshes of the Alt were undrained; Martin-mere and other shallow pools occupied the long and dreary flat without any suitable egress; so that the fenny exhalations produced a natural craving, such as was gratified by opium-eating in some of our eastern-shires, or by frequent smoking of tobacco in Holland. The cigar-case and tobacco-pipe of the 1830's had quite set aside the snuffboxes of our graet grandfathers, though the process of snuff taking was still common in the Highlands of Scotland. Surprise was often expressed that the use of tobacco was so general before the close of the sixteenth century; that is sprung into popularity with such rapidity. It was introduced among the peoples of New Zealand in about 1800, yet in twelve or fifteen years it had become almost a necessary of life.
Finally -- Pipe-making had commenced at Broseley, in Staffordshire, before the close of the sixteenth century. The raw material was the fine white clay of Devon and Cornwall , and the manufacture was thus described: -
"Pipe-making, in the early days of its introduction, was a different matter to what it is now (1850). The greater part of the manipulation was performed by the master, and twenty or twenty-four gross was the largest quantity ever burned in one kiln. This required from fifteen hundred weights to a ton of coal. Each pipe rested on its bowl, and rings of pipeclay placed one upon the other as the kiln became filled supported the stem; the result was that at least twenty per cent were warped or broken in the kiln. At the present time men perform the preliminary preparations of the clay, but the most delicate part is almost entirely entrusted to the hands of women. The pipes are placed in suggers, to be burned after the Dutch mode; and from 350 to 400 gross in one kiln is not an uncommon quantity. The breakages at the present day amount to not more than one per cent, and the quantity I have named requires no more than eight to ten tons of coal for burning". ---Taken from some comments by a Mr. Thursfield, a local Meols collector c 1850.
Back To Index