September / October 2009

This edition of the SHPC Gazette is in honor of
William Ashton Taylor

Club Info & Events

Details of the August and Septembers Meetings
Not too much to report from the August meeting, pretty much just business as usual. Besides, it was so long ago now I can hardly remember that far back. September was a different story. For the past four or five months Neil and I have been stopping in to C.B Perkins Tobacco at Cobb's Corner for a smoke before dinner. Neil smokes his pipe and I'll have a cigar. Rick started joining us as well and in September practically the entire group of active members showed up. Ok, so I'm exaggerating a little but we did have about eight members huddled around the center seating area. It was great! Now if we could only get them to carry some quality pipes and tobacco. Prebaka, the owner is a great host and always makes us feel welcome. Stop in an join us.

When smoking, the pipe feels very comfortable in the mouth, nicely balanced, and the bowl feels good in the hand. I used Mangy Dog, the bowl half filled, and the smoke was delicious; no trace of harshness or wetness. It was a perfect way to spend some time late afternoon with a cup of tea outside sitting at the picnic table reading the paper after work.

Oh yes, and it came with a lovely soft leather bag.

I hope you all enjoy yours as much when it arrives!

Best, Greg (aka Sterling)

I believe the letter was meant to be read by anyone who knew Bill or owned one of his pipes. I feel everyone should have the opportunity to read it without being subject to the ridiculous board banter that detracted from it's importance.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has passed on concern and kind words over the last few months and most of all to the many dedicated Ashton pipe smokers who have supported our father and shown their appreciation for his work. We know it meant a great deal to him to receive your praise and it was always his honour to provide his products to such an appreciative community.

Particularly those enthusiasts that hold large Ashton collections and those who took the pilgrimage to Essex, UK to visit our father in his natural habitat, the factory in Romford and the barns at the bottom of our garden. We know that he had as much pleasure from your visits as we can only imagine you had from seeing the birth of Ashton pipes from Briar to a treasured Ashton.

From our father’s time at Dunhill and making the worlds smallest pipe to the conception of the Ashton Magnum (quite the opposite), our father has made many memorable and momentous contributions to the
history of pipe smoking. He has built up the name from a hobby in our garden shed in the early 1980s to a global name of quality and we are very proud of this.

You are probably already aware that our father’s love of “tapping the admiral” over his lifetime had led to his terminal disease of cirrhosis of the liver. The recent car accident was as a result of this declining condition rather than an unfortunate accident, which contributed to his recent rapid deterioration. We would ask that you consider any information you receive in light of what you already knew of our father and your memories of him. We would appreciate if you could remember him for the pleasant times you shared, the excellent work he produced and the quality name he represented rather than any contention you may have or are likely to experience.

As mentioned before Jimmy Craig is the only person we are aware of that carries on our fathers traditions in crafting pipes the “Ashton” way and this can only be verified by you, the pipe community as you experience his work. We hope that Jimmy will continue our fathers legacy, as the art of crafting smoking pipes is now a very rare skill indeed. We hope that you agree that the quality of Jimmy’s work is indeed that of our fathers, we certainly know our father was very proud of the work that Jimmy was producing for him over the last year or so.

For those who still own the pipes our father produced with his own hands, we hope your treasured pipes are even more precious too you now and we trust you will enjoy them for many years to come. We know that
our father would be honoured by your thoughts when smoking them.

Our warmest regards and thanks to you all
Nicola and Spencer Ashton-Taylor