• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Cigarette smoking

As a schoolboy smoker, I recall tipped (filter) cigarettes being called “Cork Tip”. It tended to be the Irish lads who would say this. The printed patten on the tip certainly looked to resemble cork, so was there ever a time when the filter it was real cork?
yes.but i smoked domino plain
 
Yes, I remember when you pulled the tip apart, it was made form crêpe paper rolled up.

Once I started work, I did move up a division to Park Drive plain. They used to stick to your lip in the cold weather.
 
As a schoolboy smoker, I recall tipped (filter) cigarettes being called “Cork Tip”. It tended to be the Irish lads who would say this. The printed patten on the tip certainly looked to resemble cork, so was there ever a time when the filter it was real cork?
yes it was.
 
Yes, I remember when you pulled the tip apart, it was made form crêpe paper rolled up.

Once I started work, I did move up a division to Park Drive plain. They used to stick to your lip in the cold weather.
and me for 50ys i stopped 3 years ago. the skin has grown back now mort on my lip,and the burns bettween my fingers have heal'd lol.......... i try'd tipped i never got on with them
 
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/smoke-craven-a-107-c-ead4835aa1 !!!

My maternal gran used to smoke these. About three a week. Some of their advertising refers to cork tips, but you would need lungs like a carthorse to take a good drag, I think.

I used to smoke Sullivan Powell Special No. 1 bought from Stannard’s in Darlington St. W’ton, in retaliation against a bloke in the office who smoked Gauloises. I cured myself of the habit in 1991.
 
Last edited:
I only ever smoked one cig. when about 14 and was so sick never smoked another. Mom and dad used to smoke, Dad mainly Park Drive or Woodbines. Don't know why they called them ' Wild' Woodbines but remember going in a shop asking if he had any wild woodbines and when he said yes, told him to tame them, and ran like mad. Mom used to smoke tipped cigs. and also Dumoria. Can't remember names of other brands. Also remember her having a liking for Turkish cigs
 
As I recall the cork tip was just that, not a filter, a thin layer of cork round the tip to stop the paper getting wet and soggy, filters came later.

My dad smoked about forty a day Woodbines when he was working in the factory during the war and doing nights in the Civil Defence but gave up abruptly when he was in his forties and never smoked again.

Mom continued smoking until her death but only about ten a week Park Drive................Dad used to say "Filthy habit.! so she went to the loo for her fag. :)
 
I only ever smoked one cig. when about 14 and was so sick never smoked another. Mom and dad used to smoke, Dad mainly Park Drive or Woodbines. Don't know why they called them ' Wild' Woodbines but remember going in a shop asking if he had any wild woodbines and when he said yes, told him to tame them, and ran like mad. Mom used to smoke tipped cigs. and also Dumoria. Can't remember names of other brands. Also remember her having a liking for Turkish cigs
This is a box of 50 packets of 5 (250 total) Wild Woodbines

P1110046W.jpg
 
As I recall the cork tip was just that, not a filter, a thin layer of cork round the tip to stop the paper getting wet and soggy, filters came later.

My dad smoked about forty a day Woodbines when he was working in the factory during the war and doing nights in the Civil Defence but gave up abruptly when he was in his forties and never smoked again.

Mom continued smoking until her death but only about ten a week Park Drive................Dad used to say "Filthy habit.! so she went to the loo for her fag. :)

Thanks Eric, that may explain it.
 
Don't know why they called them ' Wild' Woodbines
I always assumed it was connected to the plant on the packet which was, I think, "wild woodbine" - a type of wild honeysuckle.
My one grandad smoked them and I remember as a child hating the smell but liking the packet.
My other grandad smoked Players untipped - he had brown fingers. In most photos (even in the army in WW1) he has a cigarette in his fingers. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
Hi all I as a lifetime non smoker I can still recall when l was working that the carpenters on site favoured the Woodbine packet as they reckoned if they put it behind a door hinge it would just do enough to make a door hang correctly on the event of snags Acklam19
 
There`s one thing worse than a smoker.. an ex smoker who brags about how easy it is to give up the habit. I found it really hard & tried many times & many ways to give up, i tried a pipe, cigars, herbal baccy roll ups & i think it has to be sheer willpower in the end. I haven`t smoked now for over 30 years but i`m still paying the price as i have copd. Can`t chase the wife round the bedroom anymore !
 
We this for me has been interesting. Looking further it seems that cigarettes filters were originally made of cork, wrapped around the outside of the cigarette; cork tipped, and used to prevent tobacco flakes from getting on the smoker's tongue. Many are still patterned to look like cork. Craven A and Turkey Rad were two such brands that used real cork.

It seems that the tobacco industry was very quick to jump on the bandwagon following a spate of speculative announcements from doctors and researchers concerning a possible link between lung diseases and smoking.

The tobacco industry determined that the illusion of filtration was more important than filtration itself. It added chemicals in the filter so that its colour becomes darker when exposed to smoke. The industry wanted filters to be seen as effective, for marketing reasons, despite not making cigarettes any less unhealthy.

Filling a given length of cigarette with filter is also a lot cheaper than filling it with tobacco, so filter tips were a win win for the tobacco industry.

Finaly, the tobacco industry did produce a Rose Petal Cigarette, made with real rose petals wrapped around the filter.

Cork Tip.JPG
 
My memory of tipped cigarettes meant that I couldn't smoke our mom's dog ends...small as they were, I could still manage a couple of drags. Once the tipped fags took hold, she would smoke the whole thing right down to the cork. Fags never tasted as good after that, there was a major difference in the taste, but you never had as much brown yellow fingers either. I quit in 1972.
Dave A
 
Just thinking about smoking fags with filters, A lot of people got burnt when smoking in bed, when the hot end would fall off the filter and set the bed alight.

I am sure a few house fires were caused when the end of the fag dropped down the side of the cushion on the settee

Funny when I think about smoking in bed, did it myself a few times.
 
There`s one thing worse than a smoker.. an ex smoker who brags about how easy it is to give up the habit. I found it really hard & tried many times & many ways to give up, i tried a pipe, cigars, herbal baccy roll ups & i think it has to be sheer willpower in the end. I haven`t smoked now for over 30 years but i`m still paying the price as i have copd. Can`t chase the wife round the bedroom anymore !
me too smudge i try'd and try'd no way .and in the end i was ill with the the flue,and got up one morning lit a fag and fell on the floor. my head spinning. thats it i said no more. like you i have copd. and i still have the cravings for one ..... who's wife smudge:grinning:
 
Just thinking about smoking fags with filters, A lot of people got burnt when smoking in bed, when the hot end would fall off the filter and set the bed alight.

I am sure a few house fires were caused when the end of the fag dropped down the side of the cushion on the settee

Funny when I think about smoking in bed, did it myself a few times.
 
In the mid - 60s Battlegroup Training used to be carried out in the Libyan desert, (imagine that !). One day we were looking around Bir Hackeim, an old fort that the Free French held out against the Afrika Korps. Kicking one of the rusty biscuit tins, lining a trench, caused the filling to pour out and in the rubble was a pristine Woodbine packet. I kept it as a souvenir but within a couple of days it had crumbled away.
 
Back
Top