St Wilfrid’s church tower graffiti – plumbers’ marks in context

Renovators of old buildings sometimes discover concealed inscriptions made by past tradesmen. They are a means communicating with fellow workers and posterity passing on the traditional culture building trade. This article investigates collection graffiti created early nineteenth-century plumbers. It explores how why these marks were -in celebration tradesmen's skills - deduces their meanings, particular relevance to noxious dangerous trade plumbing. analyses values reflected in other surviving English plumbers’ material outlines wider use working-class graffiti.