These are the 2020 interim reports. Heneb’s analysis of the 2020 and 2025 excavations has since revised their interpretation, and the final report is being prepared. Read them as a record of the first season, not the current account.
Island House Clay Pipe Report: the 2020 excavations. Dyfed Archaeological Trust, January 2021.
What this report tells us
The two trenches produced 93 pieces of clay tobacco pipe.
Most date from the 1600s and 1700s; some of the stems may be as late as the 1800s.
A small group of 1600s pipe bowls are thought to have been made by local pipe makers.
Two small bowls from Trench 1 carry the same maker’s stamp. The pipe specialist David Higgins reads it as perhaps “WiLL / Waling”: a south-west Wales maker of about 1680 to 1730, copying the style of the Broseley pipe makers in Shropshire. He thinks the maker probably worked in Carmarthen or Pembroke.
A pipe from Trench 2 has exactly the same stamp, and a similar one was found at Carmarthen Greyfriars.
This is the 2020 interim report. Heneb’s revised clay pipe report on the 2020 and 2025 seasons is in preparation.
