A collection of antique clay pipe bowls and fragments of pipe stems and they have all been found in and around the garden when digging or planting, I have no doubt that there are lots more to be discovered too.
Some time in the past this corner of the village must have been a secret smokers social club just as it was behind the bike sheds at when I was at school.
The house itself was completed in 1844 but I feel sure that some of these old smoker's artefacts are much, much older. I can just imagine the men, and ladies for that matter, smoking and chatting away and then swearing when they snapped their pipe.
No doubt the pipe was then hurled on to the ground in disgust while the owner cursed their loss, well that's my theory anyway. Then well over one hundred years later I find the pieces, wash them, clean them and keep them safe.
Obviously they have no value, they're just another little piece of social history.
I seem to mainly find parts of the stems and not the bowls
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