The text of this web presentation is substantially that of a PhD thesis which the author successfully submitted to the University of Liverpool in 1994. Unlike the majority of PhDs, his was not the product of three years of intensive work but of more than 20 years of involvement in the subject, ranging from a few weeks to full-time study. Its impetus was a professional knowledge and interest in ceramic kilns and technologies combined with a growing involvement in rescue archaeology, which frequently produced quantities of clay pipes which needed to be studied and occasionally the enigmatic remains of clay pipe production processes. His initial thinking, presented in 1982 in an earlier volume of The Archaeology of the Clay Tobacco Pipe under the title The structural development of clay tobacco pipe kilns in England: a preliminary study (BAR British Series 100, 3-17), was based on a restricted group of excavated kiln sites, in particular those at Arcadia Buildings, Southwark, Oyster Street, Portsmouth and Waverly Street, Bristol.
The present work represents a major step forward in the subject:
Inevitably, such wide-ranging research in almost uncharted waters has left major questions unresolved. For example, the origins of the north-west European clay pipe production technology package remain unclear, as does the detailed evolution of kiln technologies in the 17th century. Nevertheless, the contribution which this volume makes is very substantial.
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Last updated: Wed Oct 9 1996