Blacksmithing
I like a bit of craft. I've been on dry stone walling and hedge laying courses, and afterwards really enjoyed trying to impersonate someone who knew what they were doing. I suppose I had the same kind of idea in mind when I signed up to a blacksmithing course in Devon over the weekend.
Blacksmith Manns
Earlier Manns were blacksmiths in the East End for at least three generations in the 19th century. I wondered if it might be a genetic thing. It turns out it's not. Even if they were twice as naturally talented as I am at it, they would still have been as hopelessly impoverished as they were.
Predictably, for someone whose last formal instruction in this kind of thing was being banned from doing O Level woodwork, I was pretty er... average. It turns out you don't just heat lumps of metal up and give them a good bashing. There's measuring and precision involved in blacksmithing, for a start. Then artistic interpretation. All things I am comfortably an E for.
Having said that, I had a lovely time, made some twirly and functional artefacts, and was made to feel like someone who could make a very good blacksmith if only I had the time. My delightful fellow students all looked like they would make very good blacksmiths.
Our teacher was John Bellamy, a bluff but kind and patient Northerner. This makes sense; I always thought Moria was somewhere under Yorkshire. John wouldn't mind me describing him as apparently completely physically square. He would be more embarrassed to be described as one of the country's leading blacksmiths.
These crafts are fascinating - they are a real bridge to our common past. Medieval apprentices would have been taught to use the same tools as my great great grandfather used in Cable Street, and which I now have a passing acquaintance with. I've laid hedges in the style used hereabouts since - goodness knows - the Iron Age? We too often lose that sense of continuity .
Blacksmith MannsOur teacher was John Bellamy, a bluff but kind and patient Northerner. This makes sense; I always thought Moria was somewhere under Yorkshire. John wouldn't mind me describing him as apparently completely physically square. He would be more embarrassed to be described as one of the country's leading blacksmiths.
These crafts are fascinating - they are a real bridge to our common past. Medieval apprentices would have been taught to use the same tools as my great great grandfather used in Cable Street, and which I now have a passing acquaintance with. I've laid hedges in the style used hereabouts since - goodness knows - the Iron Age? We too often lose that sense of continuity .