Miner’s Clay Pipe

One of the few pleasures a Miner had was his smoke from a Clay Pipe when he could find the time to relax.

Clay had always been found with coal and iron. Making clay pipes began, probably as a sideline to mining after Sir Walter Raleigh introduced tobacco into Britain at the end of the sixteenth century.

Clay pipes were smoked by working men on low incomes. Occasionally women and boys smoked them too. Clay pipes are often dug up from the ground in areas that have been work places in the past.

Miners smoked in the mine to take away the ‘bad air’ taste and smell. They suffered from bad chests due to all the dust they breathed in, and smoking must have made this worse. They wouldn’t have been able to smoke in a coal mine because of the explosive gases that can accumulate there. Lead mines rarely suffer from this problem.

Tobacco was imported, and though it was relatively expensive it was available everywhere. It was sold loose, rather than as cigarettes. Clay pipes had a long stem which cooled the smoke before it went into the lungs. People who smoked heavily sometimes developed lip cancer. Clay pipes broke easily but were cheap to buy.

Broken pipes have been found in the mine, so we know that the miners must have smoked underground. They would also have enjoyed a pipe when they sat round the fire in the evenings in the lodging shop or in their own homes.

If they could afford tobacco, which was much cheaper in the 19th century than it is now, the miners would have smoked their pipes when they had a free moment to relax.

Miners would fill up the bowl of the pipe with tobacco and light it with a glowing coal or stick from the fire. Matches were quite expensive. In the mine they probably used their candles to light up their pipes.

Smokeless tobacco products have been historically used throughout the ages in the UK. They have been popular with people working in smoke free environments; miners, tailors, sailors, and all other professions in which it may have been thought as ’unseemly’ to be seen to be smoking, or in fact dangerous in the case of those working down the mines or on old wooden ships.

The below image being an example of Condor Pigtail chewing tobacco, sold in the mine shops until the vast majority closed in the late 1960’s.

~~~

If you have any Photos… Send them to Bill

Site Designed & Maintained by:
“In Pursuit of Excellence”