36
THE CLAY TOBACCO-PIPE IN BRITAIN
Colchester). Then we have Stephen Chamberlain (1728-1808) who
is listed in 1801 as Colchester's only pipe-maker, also occupying
Nos. 21-22 George Street. Later, in 1839, James Pettitt of 38 East
Street, Stephen Rand of George Lane and Elizabeth Lowthorp
in Hythe Street (now Hythe Hill) are recorded as Colchester pipe-
makers. In 1848, Elizabeth Lowthorp was already succeeded in
Hythe Street by Thomas Blomfield, and by 1863, Joseph Jennings
had taken over the factory in George Street, and James William
Pettitt had followed his father in East Street: also by 1863, a
new kiln and maker was listed—J. Bush, of Priory Street.
In a Directory of 1902, Joseph Jennings of 21 George Street is
recorded as the sole remaining pipe-maker in Essex, but his
business had gone by 1910 and only a few old men remember
when Jennings would "sell a handful of clays for a ha'penny"9.
It is interesting that we thus have a record of continuous occupa-
tion of No. 21 George Street as a pipe-factory for over a century
and a half. Recent photographs of No. 21 George Street are
shown in fig. 11, facing page 39.
Other centres of pipe-making in Essex were Saffron Walden
and Romford, but none is found in Chelmsford.
In Suffolk, according to White's Directory for 1855, which has
been analysed for entries under all the considerable towns, only
Ipswich and Beccles then had pipe-makers, four in Ipswich and
two in Beccles, although in the eighteenth century, makers were
active also at Woodridge, Sudbury and Bury St. Edmunds. Pipes
from all four Ipswich makers have been found in the neighbour-
hood of Felixstowe20.
In Norfolk, Norwich had eight makers at this time (mid-
nineteenth century) and eighteen in all are known there. In
addition, there were Norfolk makers active at Thetford, Yarmouth
and Weils at various times in the last three centuries.
In London as a whole in the mid-nineteenth century, there
were between seventy and eighty makers; this was the hey-day of
clay-pipe smoking. In Islington, for example, in 1853 there were
two makers and this pattern was repeated in every outlying
village and suburb of the Metropolis.
In Middlesex, there was only one maker at the turn of the
nineteenth century, and it is interesting that in 1902, J.
HARRISON of Highgate was still making pipes, but by 1914 his
little factory at the back of the Gipsy public-house had closed.
The 1902 edition of Kelley's Directory lists only one maker in
each of the counties of Essex, Middlesex, Herts and Suffolk.
Over the past three centuries, some 800 London makers are
known by name; there were nearly as many at Bristol, while
the Midlands and the North had about 1,000 makers in all. Kent,
Essex and East Anglia together can boast about 200 makers in the
whole period; OSWALD16 gives the total number of known
English makers as 3,400.