Local Lore

In 1895, Caldicot, in his "The Way About Herefordshire", writes:

Proceeding, Aston is entered,
to which the name of Pipe Aston
was in former times given,
this being a noted place for the making
of clay tobacco pipes,
but the trade has now died out.

In 1930, a local contractor, Mr Davies of Bucknell, was hauling timber from the wood above Juniper Dingle when a wheel of his wagon sank into a soft patch of ground. On digging out the wheel a 'nest' of tobacco pipes was discovered. This incident was reported, by G H Jack, in the Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club (Watkins 1931, 32).

Reports such as these help to keep alive folk memory of the past industry that has left it's mark all over the parish. Almost everywhere you look, pipe fragments can be found.