Country MATTERS

‘It’s an art to manipulate white-hot metal’

KATIE LATHAM, 48, is a blacksmith from Devon, where she works with her father in their family forge.

I became a blacksmith the way it’s happened for centuries – by joining the family forge. I’d always been around it, and had picked up the skills of smithing the same way that my own 10-year-old is now being taught by his grandfather.

But it wasn’t always obvious that I would follow in Dad’s footsteps. For years, I enjoyed a career in fashion retail. One day I might be in Manchester, the next, helping to design window displays in London’s Kensington and Knightsbridge. It was a world away from the forge.

When it was time for my son to start school, I realised that I wanted a job that would allow me to work within school hours, still doing something I loved. That’s when I decided to come and work with Dad at the forge. I was lucky because I’d picked up so much over the