Blakemar Briars

Blakemar Briars is a small workshop founded in the Northamptonshire countryside of central England, making handmade briar pipes within the same family line for over a century. Its name comes from the merging of Blakesley, the village where the trade began, and Martin, the founding family's surname. Working today from the village of Litchborough, the workshop is known not for the large factory brands of English pipemaking but for a craft tradition sustained at bench scale.

Founding and the Martin Generations

The founder Thomas Martin's entry into the trade dates back to the early 1880s. He spent a five-year apprenticeship in London's Soho district under a craftsman named John Friedrich; the trade he learned there was not briar but meerschaum carving. His introduction to briar came at his next stop, the workshop of Loewe & Co. This was a period before the Dunhill brand had even been founded, when London pipemaking was still shaped by the Loewe generation. According to records, Martin returned to his home village after helping his employer with an exhibition stand that won a gold medal; the first Martin workshop opened there in 1890.

The business passed to his son Richard (Dick) Martin. When a larger building became available, production moved in 1961 to the neighbouring village of Litchborough. Dick Martin's era was also when the workshop's machinery was modernised: foot-powered lathes and long belt drives gave way to electric power. Dick Martin died in January 2003 at the age of eighty-four; records indicate he continued visiting the workshop until his final years.