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Appendix 3: The Clay Tobacco Pipes

Pipemakers within and immediately adjacent to the study area

Documentary records

Primary documentary records consulted for the project comprised the census returns for the period 1851 to 1911 covering the streets/houses within and immediately surrounding the study area, and the results are recorded in Appendix 1. The area targeted comprised between thirty and forty dwellings, situated on the parts of Wade Street, Little Anne Street and Little George Street immediately adjacent to the site, and including the 'courts', Swan Court, Pratten's Court, Barrow Court and Buss Court, of which the latter two, at least, are likely to have been later infilling.

This information was then amalgamated with that obtained from the trade directories and other documents by Dr Price (Price 2014), with the aim of locating potential pipemakers living and working within or in the immediate vicinity of the study area. It was important to utilise both classes of document, as the trade directories record the businesses undertaken at specific addresses, whereas the census records recorded solely the names and trades of the inhabitants, many of whom are likely to have been working at a different address.

For the purposes of the present report, the study area was taken to comprise all or parts of 24 to 36 Wade Street (even numbers only), 2 to 10 Little Anne Street, 1, 3 and 5 Little George Street, and all or most of Pratten's Court, Swan Court, Barrow Court and Buss Court. ¹⁹

24-36 Wade Street

Trade directories for Wade Street list a pipe manufactory/workshop at 26 Wade Street, held/run by Daniel White from 1840 to 1841 (Price 2014, 4432), by J. Wilkey between 1867 and 1870, and by William White between 1879 and 1880.

Price notes that in 1834 the property was held by Joseph White II and James White I, members of one of the most important pottery manufacturing families in 19th-century Bristol (Price 2014, 4385). ²⁰ The 1834 deed of sale actually refers to 41 Wade Street, but it is thought that, owing to re-numbering, the house in question is, in fact, no. 26 (see below). In 1839, the same property is described in the borough survey as a beer shop owned by a member of the White family (Price 2014, 4410). By 1840, Mathew's Trade Directory lists the property as a pipe factory, run by Daniel White (above). This information is corroborated by the census return for the year 1841, which lists Daniel as a pipemaker, living with his wife and two children at the same address. ²¹

By the time of the borough survey of 1851, 26 Wade Street is described as a house and pipe manufactory owned by Joseph White (who lived at Prospect Place) and occupied in several parts (Price 2014, 4410).

Part, at least, of the Wade Street property continued to be occupied by a pipemaking family from 1863 onwards, when Mathew's Directory lists a (John) Wilkey (I) running a pipe manufacturing business there until at least 1871 (Price 2014, 4569). ²²

In 1871, the borough survey records the property as a house, shop and manufactory occupied by John Grove, thus suggesting that Wilkey was only a secondary tenant (Price 2014, 4570). More importantly, the census for the same year records that Wilkey, together with his wife, was living in the cottage behind 26 Wade Street, and that he was a master pipemaker, employing three men and twelve women (see below and Appendix 1). The census records three further families also living at no. 26 at the time, including a pipemaker, Mrs Nutt, who was presumably employed by Wilkey (Price 2014, 4570). Wilkey is known to have died in 1877 (Price 2014, 4571).

A further member of the White family, William, is known to have taken over the Wade Street pipe factory (as a tenant) between 1879 and 1880, although it is not known whether pipes had been continuously manufactured there since 1871 (Price 2014, 4571). Significantly, the 1879 document lists:

'All that messuage … formerly known as No. 41 but now as No. 26 Wade Street … And also those kilns, sheds and warerooms erected on the garden … then in the occupation of Mr William White as tenant … To hold … to the use of the said Thomas Bellamy … subject to a yearly rent of 12s/6d' (BRO 4627 (353); Price 2014, 4444).

The property is not listed as a factory after 1880. The census return for 1881 lists one pipemaker, a Widow Lotten, living at no. 26, along with four other families, although it is not known whether she was manufacturing pipes at the same address. Later census records make no further mention of pipe manufacturing at this property. No other pipe factories are listed in the directories for this side of Wade Street, although two short-lived establishments were present at nos 7 and 15 in the 1850s/60s, and longer established factories at nos 27 and 45, between the 1840s and 1860s (Price 2014, 3.4).

In 1851, 28 Wade Street was occupied by the Pratt family, whose daughter was a pipemaker. As they lived next door to the White's factory (above), it is likely that Elizabeth Pratt would have been working there. At no. 30, the 1861 census records a mother and daughter, Ann and Elizabeth Sheppard, both employed as pipemakers, probably at the above location. Ten years later, the same house (no. 30) was occupied by the Pound family, of whom Mrs Caroline Pound and one of the sons were pipemakers, both very likely to have been working at the adjacent factory, particularly since Caroline was John Wilkey I's eldest daughter (Price 2014, 3219).

2-10 Little Anne Street

Although no pipe factories are known at any of these addresses, census records and contemporary surveys record a short-lived factory to the north-east of the Swan With Two Necks public house, immediately adjacent to the study area. The borough survey of 1851 shows that a Thomas Young (II) held a lease on a house, yard and manufactory at 14 Little Anne Street (Price 2014, 4720) (Figures 8 and 21). ²³

The 1851 census records Young as living in Little Anne Street, together with his wife and two of their four children, sharing the house with a second family (Appendix 1). In the same year it is possible that the family moved briefly to Jacob Street, Old Market (Price 2014, 4720ff.), or this may have been a clerical error, as by 1852, their address is once more given as Little Anne Street (Price 2014).

By 1855, Thomas and his wife had moved to Gloucester Lane, while still continuing to run the Little Anne Street factory, which remained in business until at least 1856. By 1861, the family was again living and working back at 14 Great Anne Street, with both parents listed in the census as tobacco pipe manufacturers (Price 2014). Price notes that nothing is known of the Little Anne Street factory after 1856, and that no other pipe manufacturer is known to have taken it over.

No further pipe factories are listed for Little Anne Street, although census returns show makers who must have been working outside the home. At 4 Little Anne Street, the 1871 census records the pipemaker, Elizabeth Cotton, the widow of James Wilkey, son of John Wilkey I, of 26 Wade Street, now married to former pipemaker, Thomas Cotton (Price 2014, 1151), and probably working at the Wilkey factory. Immediately outside the site, at 14 Little Anne Street, census returns of 1871 and 1881 record female pipemakers, first of the Evans family²⁴ and later of the Baker family, at the same address.

1-5 Little George Street

Trade directories for 1850 show a Thomas Young working somewhere on Little George Street, although it is not known whether this is the same Thomas Young who was, at the time, working at 8 Little Anne Street (Price 2014, 3.3). No pipemakers are recorded in census returns for 1 to 5 Little George Street between 1851 and 1911.

Pratten's Court, Swan Court, Barrow Court, Buss Court

These 'courts', which constitute a characteristic feature of the study area (see below and Figures 8 and 21), are not recorded by Price in his list of locations of pipe factories (Price 2014, section 3), and it is likely that all the pipemakers listed under these locations (who are predominantly women and girls) would have been working for an external employer.

For Pratten's Court, census records for the period list only two makers; for 1851, the daughter of the Sheppard family, and for 1881, Widow Darney, at 9 Pratten's Court. ²⁵

A similar situation applies for the few pipemakers listed for Swan Court. The makers listed include Mary Webb in 1851, ²⁶ Widow Griffiths in 1861, together with two of her sons, and in 1871, William Davis. ²⁷ No further pipemakers are recorded for Swan Court until the census of 1901, when the wife of the Short family, ²⁸ of 1 Swan Court, is listed specifically as 'pipemaker working at home'. It appears that, by that date, Elizabeth Short would have been aged about seventy-four, and would have been very unlikely to have been running her own business (Price 2014, 3835-6), but may have been performing a minor task such as trimming (Price 2014, 1.11; pre-firing) or burnishing (post-firing).

^{19. Establishing the correct street numbering has been problematic, to say the least, largely because the houses fronting on Wade Street are known to have been re-numbered during the 19th century (Price 2014, 4385, 4444). The numbering used in the present report (which does not necessarily correspond with that suggested by Dr Price) is shown in Figures 8 and 21. Similarly, it has not been possible to pin-point exactly the houses of Buss Court and of Barrow Court, either archaeologically or from documentary evidence, but it is thought that both courts were located immediately to the rear (i.e. north-west) of Pratten's Court and thus fell wholly or partially within the study area (Figures 8 and 21, and see later).←}

^{20. Members of the White family ran both pottery and pipemaking businesses, including a substantial pottery at Baptist Mills, and smaller pipemaking businesses at New Street and Great Anne Street (Price 2014).←}

^{21. Daniel was the third son of Joseph White I and Charlotte White. Daniel worked briefly at one of the family pottery businesses in Redcross Street, before opening his own pipe workshop in Wade Street (above). By 1842, however, Daniel was described in the parish registers as a potter, but, although still living at Wade Street, it is not known whether he was working at the same address or elsewhere (Price 2014, 4433). At some point before 1846, the family must have moved to Baptist Mills (above), as a Fiat for bankruptcy was issued in that year against a Daniel White, potter and pipemaker (Price 2014, 4433).←}

^{22. The connection with the White family was maintained, as Price suggests that John Wilkey had been the manager of the Whites' Phoenix Pottery at Baptist Mills up until c. 1862, and that it was the White family who owned 26 Wade Street (Price 2014).←}

^{24. Esther Evans, daughter of Joseph Notton I, had previously worked in her father's pipe factory on Eugene Street/Wade Street up until 1860/1 (Price 2014, 1551).←}

^{25. Dr Price notes that Sarah Ann Darney came from a family of pipemakers, and first worked in the trade in 1851, when she would have been between 10 and 16, after the death of her mother, when the family lived on Great Anne Street (Price 2014, 1270). After marriage, she lived first at Little Anne Street then at Great Anne Street, returning to pipemaking in 1871. As a widow, she worked as a pipemaker from 1878 until at least 1891 (Price 2014, 1272).←}

^{26. Mary had taken up pipemaking by 1841, when she was living with her husband on Great George Street, The couple shared the latter house with Thomas Young (pipemaker of Little Anne Street, above; Price 2014, 8348).←}

^{27. Price suggests that Davis must have worked at the Sanders and Down pipe factory on Pinnell Street, off Great Anne Street, as he and his family had been living at various locations just a few doors away from the factory since c. 1851 (Price 2014, 1307).←}

^{28. Elizabeth Mary Short had been working as a pipemaker since at least 1861, when she worked in her mother's family's business (Price 2014, 3836). In 1871, Price suggests that she was employed by James George I, of Great Anne Street, where she was living at the time. In 1891, she was living at a different address in Great Anne Street, but still presumably working for George (Price 2014, 3836).←}

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