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Derbyshire
TOBACCO PIPE AND POTTERY MAKING IN BOLSOVER
Bolsover is not one of the parishes of north-east Derbyshire where there was a great deal of
small-scale industry before the Industrial Revolution. The parish lies outside the Rother
valley, with its easily accessible coal and ironstone, and was not one of the places where
framework knitting became established at an early date.
Bolsover was, however, quite well known locally in the 17th century for its tobacco pipes and
in the 18th century there was a shortlived attempt to establish an earthenware pottery in the
town. Both made use of the deposits of suitable clay found to the north of the town, mainly on
Shuttlewood Common, which was exploited from an early date. Leases of the manorial
demesnes of 1526 and 1546 both mention a clay pit, although there is no indication of what
the clay was used for.
In 1673 Bolsover was said to be noted for the excellent and well glazed tobacco pipes made
there and from the 1680s the manor court regularly fined men for getting tobacco pipe clay on
Shuttlewood Common. Three pipemakers' inventories survive for 1680, 1687 and 1690,
listing tools of the trade, and early tulip-shaped pipes have been found in several parts of the
town.
The best documented family involved in the craft were the Robinsons, who made pipes in
Bolsover and Chesterfield for at least five generations, beginning with William Robinson (d.
1731), who was described as a pipemaker in 1718. William's eldest son and heir, also named
William, continued the business but later went overseas and was not heard of again. In 1750
his brother Thomas, who was both a blacksmith and a pipemaker, was admitted to the family's
copyhold estate in Bolsover. A third brother of that generation, Paul, who also had a pottery
in Chesterfield, was fined in the manor court in the 1740s for getting clay and selling pipes
out of the manor.
Philip Riden
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May 2007
Thomas Robinson had two sons, William and Thomas, and his brother Paul had a son named
William. In 1749 Thomas Robinson, William Robinson and Thomas Robinson the younger
agreed to pull down, remove or cease working a pot house and smoking house they had built
in Bolsover on pain of forfeiting £40, following a complaint by Samuel Brailsford.
As a result of this order, William Robinson (d. 1812) moved to Chesterfield, where he
established a pottery at Brampton, and the elder Thomas in 1750 built a new pot house at
Bolsover, apparently on the waste of the manor, since he was fined 4d. for encroachment. He
and two others (W. Hitchin and Christopher Bowskill) were also each fined 2d. for geting clay
on Shuttlewood Common and for selling pipes out of the manor; on another occasion John
Kitchin was fined for the same offence. Clay was also got from the Hockley valley just below
the castle walls.
Thomas Robinson's potworks of 1750 cannot be identified in any later conveyance of
copyhold tenements in the manor court rolls and it is not shown on the enclosure map of
1780. In 1894 about 150 pieces of pottery, representing perhaps 25 different pots, were found
on a plot of ground on the north side of Town End, some of which were given to the British
Museum and other to Derby and Nottingham museums. In 1936 the foundations of an old kiln
were unearthed in Kitchen Croft, at or close to the site of the discoveries forty years earlier.
Since Kitchen Croft stood on the north side of Town End and was not part of the waste of the
manor, the kiln there was presumably the one the Robinsons were forced to close down in
1749, rather than its successor.
The pottery made at the Kitchen Croft kiln was brown ware with a high glaze, sometimes
plain, sometimes mottled, or with an incised slip. Plates had wavy or notched edges and some
fragments were decorated with a wavy pattern in yellow and brown bands. One or two pieces
of tobacco pipe were also found in 1936 but not sufficient to suggest that this was a pipe kiln.
In the 1890s four complete pieces of Bolsover ware were known to exist, although it is not
clear at which kiln they were made. These included a light brown speckled porringer and a
brown mustard pot (both of which then belonged to C. Hinde), a sugar basin belonging to the
Revd T.C. Hills, and a charger owned by S. Richards of the Old Friary, Nottingham.
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May 2007
In 1766 Bolsover was said to be noted only for its fine tobacco pipes and, although the trade
was not mentioned by James Pilkington, writing in 1789, it was apparently still in existence in
the 1820s, when it was described as the only manufacturing activity in the town. It is not
heard of after that date and in 1875 the industry was said to have died out fifty years earlier.
The last manufacturer was William Haywood, who made pipes in a cottage in Hockley from
clay got nearby.
Philip Riden
Page 3
May 2007