Seen & Found

I was browsing the Photographer's Ephemeris this afternoon and found what may be an unrecorded barrow/ring-ditch/rath situated in the townland of Barberstown Upper, Co.Kildare (north of the village of Straffan, and just off the R406 to Maynooth). I've checked the National Monuments Service database and the OSI's historic maps and it would appear it has not been previously recorded. There may in fact be another smaller circular feature less than 50 metres away to the SE of this larger circular feature. They are sitting in a tillage field and it's likely they've both been ploughed-out at this stage. There also appears to be a curious line of circular crops marks running roughly north-south through the large circular enclosure.

http://app.photoephemeris.com/?ll=53.158188,-6.911728&center=53.3265,-6.6090&dt=20130806085100%2B0100&z=19&spn=0.00,0.00&sll=53.115298,-6.775705

A Bing satellite image:
http://binged.it/1NrR8ZS

This Google image shows the smaller circular feature to the SE of the larger one and the curious line of crop marks running north-south through the large feature:

The OSI's 1995 Ortho. image looks quite impressive alright. It's a pity you can't zoom in any closer though. You can definitely see a smaller circular feature to the SE of the large one in this image too. That 'row' of smaller irregularly-shaped circular features running in a rough north-south alignment looks to me rather reminiscent of prehistoric pits you would see in a geomagnetic survey (granted quite large pits), but in saying that, they could just be evidence of more recent agricultural activity. Again you can see them very clearly in that 1995 OSI ortho. image. I've highlighted several of them in the image below:



I sent an email to the NMS this evening, so will let you know what happens in due course.

I thought I'd post some photos of clay tobacco pipe bowls and fragments which I've found in a field close to my home. They've all been surface finds on ploughed soil. I've sent some to the NMI already and hope to send these in due course. By the way, I'm no clay tobacco pipe expert and all the information I impart below has come by way of several hours research on-line. If I've got anything wrong, don't be afraid to say so!



The clay pipe bowl below is by far the oldest one, dating to the late 17th Century, c.1680. These clay pipes usually had small bowls, but as tobacco became more readily available and thus cheaper, the pipe bowls consequently got larger in later centuries. Note the 'spur' on this pipe bowl - this type of spur didn't appear on pipes until after the mid-17th century. Pipes prior to this had larger, flatter 'heels'.



Another diagnostic feature which helps distinguish early pipes from later ones (there's always the exception of course) is the diameter of the borehole in the stems. The diameter of the borehole on this early pipe bowl is quite wide compared to those on late 19th century pipes.




The four pipe bowls below are distinctly Irish in shape, and date from circa 1860 to 1880. Irish clay tobacco pipes dating to this period tended to have quite large bowls which sat rather upright on the end of the stems. Note also how they lack 'heels' or 'spurs'.



All four of these bowls bear decoration or maker's marks. Three of them bear a round cartouche inset with a 'Crowned L', which was a famous trade mark from Gouda in the Netherlands. Gouda clay tobacco pipes were renowned for their superior quality and it was not uncommon for both Irish and English clay tobacco pipe makers to copy the motif in an attempt to boost their prestige and their sales!




Only one of the bowls in the group of four above bears a maker's mark. The name 'A. Mason / Waterford' sits within a rectangular cartouche on the side of the bowl. Despite exhaustive efforts, I've been unable to find a record for this maker. The Spring 2013 issue of Archaeology Ireland (Vol.27; No.1; Issue 103; 31-36), has an article which lists known clay tobacco pipe makers in Ireland; it is an article by Joe Norton and is entitled 'Pipe Dreams: A Directory of Clay Tobacco Pipe-Makers in Ireland'. I've checked with Wordwell (the publishers) and it seems they don't have a back issue of the Spring 2013 magazine. If by chance someone here should have that issue, would it be too forward of me to ask you to check this article to see if this clay tobacco pipe maker appears in that directory?!! I'd love the thought that this particular pipe bowl with maker's name is a hitherto unknown example, but know the chances are slim!



The bowls and fragments below all date from the late 19th to early 20th century, circa 1890 - 1910. The two complete bowls in the centre are quite interesting. One has remnants of a metal lid still attached and the other has decoration in the form of a maker's mark/symbol on the heel and crests where the stem meets the bowl.



This pipe bowl has the corroded remnants of a metal lid still attached to its rim:


The bowl with decoration:




A close-up of the maker's symbol/mark on the heel, which looks like a stylised crown perhaps?:




An impression of the mark:



The bowl fragment below bears a partial inscription/name with the letters ".....EVIS / .....Y" still visible:



Following a rather lengthy search, I eventually found something that I thought would fit the bill; I found an image of a bowl with the inscription 'BEN NEVIS / CUTTY' upon it. Clay tobacco pipes with this inscription were very common in the latter part of the 19th Century, both here and in Scotland. There were two major manufacturers of this type of pipe - W.White of Glasgow and an Irish maker W.Curley based in Knockcroghery, Co.Roscommon.
The maker's names were often imprinted on the stems. The lines of decoration around the rim of the fragment shown above was known as 'rouletting' and seems to have been a distinctly Irish invention, so it's very likely this pipe was made by W.Curley of Knockcroghery. Incidentally, the word 'cutty' comes from a practice whereby a labourer would deliberately shorten a clay pipe stem making it easier to hold in his mouth while working. Of course it didn't take long thereafter before a manufacturer would begin making pipes with shorter, thicker stems to suit their customers' needs.
The short-stemmed 'BEN NEVIS' cutty would have been used by Irish émigré workers and navvies. Indeed, many have been found as far afield as Australia and the U.S. - a recent find is reported here:
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/living-and-working/stations/macquarie-island/this-week-at-macquarie-island/2012/this-week-at-macquarie-island-3-august-2012/3

How these clay pipes ended up in the plough soil can only be speculated upon and it may have been something as prosaic as farm labourers throwing away broken pipes when they were ploughing the soil or during harvest time. There was a tradition at wakes here in Ireland whereby a tray of tobacco filled pipes would have been passed around to the mourners; the 'dúidín' (the Irish word for a clay tobacco pipe) was kept until the mourners reached the graveside and when the ceremony had finished, the mourners would smoke the pipes and then discard them in or around the vicinity of the graveyard. Joe Norton coined the phrase 'pipe graveyards' to describe this tradition. Where am I going with this you may ask? Well, there sits at the centre of the finds' field a very old, walled-graveyard, and I've found gravestones with inscriptions dating back to as early as 1760. I love the notion that following a funeral a group of local men threw their pipes over the wall of the graveyard where they would get churned about in the plough soil for centuries until I happened upon them!

Thanks Mountainsandh!
It'll be great if someone has heard of Masons in Waterford.

Edit: Fair play Mountainsandh! I did have a cursory look at the Waterford Museum website, but didn't see anything. I might just give them a ring though.
Checking out the census is good thinking - I'll certainly give that a go too!
I can't find Alan Mason on that other link you posted, but I'll keep looking.
Thanks again.