The Forge

I was born in 1919, we moved from Chestnut Street into the Forge House in 1922. My Dad (the blacksmith George Sherlock) used to renew the worn tyres on the wagon wheels, in order to do this he had to remove the big round iron cover which was and still is in front of the Forge, then he had to take off and fix the wheel in the space where the cover was then heat the new tyre on the forge fire. He used to get a bit of help – Uncle Ted Miller, Mr. Payne the shoe mender and anyone in the pub at the time who could stand by with a bucket of water because once the tyre was on it had to be cooled down quickly because the wheel could be set alight by the tyre. My dad made the four arms for the lights in the church when electricity arrived, the old ones had candles which Uncle Ted used to pull up and down on a rope to light, and those same frames are still there.

Marjorie Barrett (nee Sherlock)