Mudlarking along the River Thames London - Clay Pipe Special!

This is a series of clay pipe finds from the Thames foreshore in London during 2016. There is something rather satisfying about pulling a clay pipe from the Thames mud - not knowing if the pipe is intact or not! I hope you enjoy this first video of the “Thames Clay Pipe Extraction Series“. Clay Pipes date back to late 16th century to early 20th century. They were often smoked just once or twice before being discarded. They were frequently purchased prefilled with tobacco and you can get an idea of the age of them by the size of the pipe bowl. The smaller the bowl, the older the pipe. this... is because tobacco was very expensive at first. There are lots of pipe stems to be found on the Thames foreshore - because they really are like old fashioned cigarette butts. My favourites are the beautifully decorated pipe bowls. It never fails to amaze me - the imagination that those pipe makers had! I hope you enjoy this video. I always have the greatest fun finding and extracting these pipe

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