Forging ahead
Of all the tradesmen who were required to make a village self-sufficient – the carpenter, cobbler, butcher, publican and shop keeper – the most important was the blacksmith. From the earliest periods there would have been one smith to every handful of people; he was without doubt the most indispensable member of the community and usually the strongest, too.
Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands,
The smith, a mighty man is he
With large and sinewy hands.
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands…
Week in, week out, from morn
till night
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy
sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell
When the evening sun is low.
From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Village Blacksmith, 1841 (the smith in the poem was Longfellow’s neighbour in Cambridge, Dexter Pratt).
A village blacksmith was a highly accomplished and versatile craftsman who would be able to forge metal into an incredibly diverse range of objects.
