The Blacksmith's Forge

Dobson Locks on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal at Apperley Bridge recently had a Heritage Open Day. I went along as I was interested to see the blacksmith's forge in use. (I had an ancestor who was a blacksmith.)

David Wadsworth, a Trust volunteer and former blacksmith, was demonstrating how the forge worked and the skills needed to work the metal. He was assisted by a 'bellow boy', Phil Bristow, whose job was to rhythmically work the leather and wood bellows contraption, which pumps air into the coals to increase the heat and flame. Metal rods are left in the fire for a while until glowing red, at which point they can be removed and worked. A lot of the skill seemed to be in judging the optimum point to remove the metal to work it. Left too long and it goes brittle and sends dangerous sparks, too short and it's not malleable enough to work. David explained the various tools he used as he made some some demo pieces. 

When it was a working forge, they made all sorts of items for the locks, some of them quite large. You may be able to see in the photo below that there is a square hatch at the back of the fire, and that enabled very long metal pieces to be threaded through and heated. They have been able to piece together the history of the forge since the early 1800s, from documents, receipts and census records. They know who the blacksmith was at various dates and, as so often in the past, it seems to have been quite a family affair, passing from father to son. 

David was making smaller and more decorative items like hooks and pokers. It was fascinating to watch.  

He was wearing traditional wooden soled boots, studded with nails - and incidentally told us that Silsden, further up the canal, at one time had many small forges specialising in nail-making. 

In a workshop further along the row, they were making wooden parts for locks. Of course, water eventually rots the wood of the gates and paddles. Traditionally made of oak, gates have a lifespan, apparently, of about thirty years. There is a large canal workshop at Stanley Ferry near Wakefield, one of only two in the UK that now has the skills and capacity to make the huge gates themselves.