Probably the best article I’ve read on Sharrow mills.
By the way, I’ll take this opportunity to say that it’s nice to see such a snuff dinosaur here. I loved digging into Yahoo group’s posts sometimes - great archive. A pity it is now lost in time.
That’s an excellent article, Graeme, and thank you for sharing.
It’s been a long, long time since I posted on your site, which was the first of its kind. It was reassuring to know that I wasn’t the only snuff-taker on the planet and was able to converse with fellow enthusiasts such as Leonard Fox and Griff (Professor Allen Phillips Griffiths). Since that time I believe I have solved some of the riddles that then puzzled posters – including myself.
The letters of some of the early snuffs listed in the Sharrow ledgers of the latter half of the 18th century mystified Mark Chaytor. In the Wilsons of Sharrow he mentions, for example LA and BA snuff, the significance of the letters having been lost. Through a discovery of scores of original recipes from the House of Taddy & Co found in a museum archive I know for certain that LA stands for Light Amersfoort and BA is for Black Amersfoort as the same lettering system is used.
As for SP snuff I have written an essay explaining the meaning of those letters but am unable to download PDF files so have added screenshots instead. It would be interesting to hear your view.
Very interesting. I’ll be replying to parts 1 and 2 tomorrow. Thanks!
Hello Philip.
These documents over three messages are wonderful to read. Thanks for sharing! The S.P. debate rages on. I was brought up with the Spanish or Spanish Pride version. It was an appealing tale of the defeat of our dastardly rivals at sea, the Spanish, and appealed to our sense of patriotism. But the Sales & Pollard version makes sense. As a snuff I quite like it but find It fairly unsophisticated.
I remember you in the Yahoo group and your contributions. I miss Griff. So knowledgeable. And a real gentleman. Im so pleased his site is still online. Last of his generation. What I regret is that I didn’t hand over the baton when I couldn’t manage it myself. Also I wish I had downloaded the content - photos, documents. There were thousands of photos of tins old and new, mill photos and snuff containers.There was an option to do so but i hadn’t realised it.
Lovely to chat with you.
Graeme