Search publications: Shire Publications (Haverfordwest)

Although clay tobacco pipes are still made today, their place in history is the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Until about 1890 the clay pipe was as commonplace as the tankard of ale and the mug of tea, but competition from the briar pipe, the cigar and the cigarette brought the clay-pipe industry to an end about 1900. Many people remember using clay pipes in blowing bubbles when they were children, and some can recall seeing navvies, or their grandfathers, smoking them, but it will not be long before such memories are forgotten.