The Blacksmith's Workshop

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English surnames are usually classified into 5 groups: given names (e.g. Johnson), occupational names (e.g. Tailor), locational names (e.g. York), ornamental names (e.g. Ballard - "bald head"), and other names. Smith is the most common occupational surname in England, but also the most numerous of all names. The reason for this is likely to be the fact that the job of the smith (sometimes called "blacksmith") was such an important and widespread occupation for much of recorded history. We sometimes forget that English villages changed remarkably little until the last quarter of the nineteeenth century. Up until that time a farmer or agricultural labourer from the medieval period would easily have recognised the tools and practices of his Victorian counterparts. He would also recognise the self-sufficient nature of village life with its baker, shoemaker, saddler, wheelwright, smith and many other tradesmen carrying on their occupations in the small community.

The mechanization of agriculture, a process that began in the late nineteenth century and was complete by the end of the second world war, ended many of these occupations, and changed the character of village life. What was previously made in these small settlements now often had to be brought in from the nearby town, or even ordered from a city. The blacksmith lost a large part of his work, particularly that connected with horses and farm machinery. They didn't entirely disappear of course: ornamental metal work, repairs and the burgeoning equine hobbies provided (and still do supply) a living for some.

Then there was the specialist smith attached to a particular line of work. Today's photograph shows the preserved blacksmith's workshop of an employee of a South Lincolnshire drainage board. His work would involve dealing with all the metal-work needs of this large undertaking that kept the water flowing off the low-lying land. In the corner is the forge, next to it a leather bellows with a long handle to pump it, and nearby a big anvil raised up on a section of tree trunk. There are a couple of workbenches equipped with vices and lathes, and the walls are festooned with tools. The red, wheeled object in the centre of the photograph is a portable, petrol-powered engine. It could be used to drive machinery by means of a belt fixed to the drum on the nearest wheel. I don't know when this particular workshop closed but it must have been around 1950.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation:- 0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Tradition and old age

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My current book is a re-reading of one that I first read in 1977. George Ewart Evans' Where Beards Wag All: The Relevance of the Oral Tradition, sets out to add the voices and memories of old people to the documentary evidence of historians, and thereby humanize the recent past. It uses commentary by agricultural workers and others to explain the jobs of craftsmen, the system of agriculture, the village life and the lives of the migrant workers of East Anglia from the period towards the end of the nineteenth century to around 1930. His notes and recordings add to the historical record details that cannot be found in documents, artefacts and the landscape, and activities that are somewhat dry and theoretical in history books, for example steam-ploughing, making whitening, or operating a village foundry, come alive when described by the people who undertook the work.

Conincidentally I attended the Steam Threshing event at Bicker this weekend, and saw people re-creating some of the old crafts and farming methods that I had read about only days earlier. A traction engine was operating a large, wooden threshing machine, one was powering a saw that was cutting logs, and a third was linked to a flour mill that was producing bags for sale. Vintage tractors, of the sort that Evans describes beginning to replace horses during the 1930s were on display. So too were collections of old wood and metal working tools. And, in a mocked-up shed that included another small flour mill, I saw this man making lengths of ornamental wrought iron using a small forge, a vice and an anvil. He had dressed for the part in bowler hat, waist-coat and neckerchief, and made an interesting sight. I grabbed this shot as he worked his metal with his hammer.

As I watched I reflected on the greater interest that older people have for these types of traditional crafts and industries. Is it, I wondered, because their age gives them a greater perspective and they are able to list the activities and crafts of their youth that are now no more? Probably.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 110mm (220mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On