The Wateringbury forge (c 1910)

Post date: Sep 13, 2013 11:35:0 AM

The following is an extract from the reminisces of David Bowerman, whose father Frederick leased Court Lodge Farm (or Teston Farm) in 1909 from Roger Leigh of Barham Court and where David grew up. Chris Davies of Teston History Society has kindly contributed a file of extracts from the booklet relating to Teston, from which this section on the Wateringbury Forge is taken.

When old enough, we boys were allowed to take huge shires to the forge in the next village, Wateringbury, to be shod. Although the men used to ride to and from work sitting sideways on the broad backs, we were never permitted to ride any horse which still had any harness on it. Father had a constant fear that we might fall off and get our feet entangled in the chains or leather. Dreadful accidents did happen when careless lads had slipped off and become entangled and dragged by the foot. The horse would at once take fright and it does not take much imagination to visualise the result.

The Wateringbury forge which today is a modern garage and petrol station, consisted of two large buildings; one was where the horses were actually shod and the other had two fires and two or three anvils. As we were well known to the blacksmith we were on occasions allowed to pump the bellows. This requires far greater skill than at first appears. The fire has to be kept at a constant heat, and if in our enthusiasm we blew too hard or too fast two things could happen. Either the centre of the fire exploded and so lost heat, or if there was iron being heated it would 'burn' before reaching the necessary glow at which it could be worked. If a number of shoes were being heated together it was most important to keep a steady heat and also to see that the shoes were not touching each other in the fire, if so they could join together. It would have been unthinkable in those days to 'cold shoe' any

horse, although it is a common practice today. Every shoe had to be made a perfect fit and as every horse and pony has a slight different shaped foot great skill and care was taken in forging each shoe to be the exact shape and size required. Some horses occasionally 'brush',that is they are apt to touch the near fetlock with the off hoof, and vice versa, as they trot. A good blacksmith would recognise if a horse had this tendency and would allow the hoof to overlap the shoe on the inside so that it would not be iron brushing the fetlock and so doing considerable damage. The softer hoof would not cause such serious trouble.

I can still recall the smell of the acrid smoke as the red hot shoe was first fitted against the hoof to try for size. We would then watch the smith tap the shoe on the anvil to correct a slight bulge or narrow spot. The hoof is rather like our toenails and has no feel in it. Like many skills undertaken by an expert, shoeing looks fairly easy. The problem is however, to hold the horses foot in such a position that the smith can pare and shape the hoof and first fit the hot shoe and finally nail on the finished product. The leg of a heavy carthorse weighs a good deal and it needs strength to hold it between ones knees and at the same time

use ones hands for the delicate task of fitting and nailing. There are horses who will lean against the smith and others who just will not stand still. Young horses can be especially troublesome and not a little dangerous.

The hoof, like our fingernails, grows quickly so that when new shoes have to be fitted there is often a good deal of hoof to be trimmed away. It is done with a specially shaped curved knife which has to be kept razor sharp and it is very easy to cut oneself badly when dealing with a restive horse.

The really exciting occasions were when a wooden wagon wheel had to have a new iron tyre fitted, or when an old one had worn a little loose but still had considerable life left in it. It would then be decided to tighten the old tyre. This was done by a method called 'cut and shut'. The old tyre was taken off the wheel and a small section cut out, about four inches. The two ends were then heated in the furnace and welded together with heavy sledgehammers. The tyre should then be just too small to fit back on the wheel so it was heated all round the circumference so that it would expand with the heat. This was a tricky operation as it is so easy to heat one part too much and another too little so that there would be bulges in the tyre. When the headman felt that the heat was just right all round, a nice red glow, two or three men with long-handled tongs would pick up the hot tyre and fit it over

the wheel which was lying on a flat round piece of iron fixed to the yard floor for this purpose. They would then hammer it on so that it was a perfect fit. When satisfied, the blacksmith would throw cold water all round the rim to make it contract and so become a solid entity with its wooden partner. The wheel would then last a good deal longer until the tyre was worn too thin to 'cut and shut' again.

New iron tyres were fitted in the same way. It was very important that the cooling off process was done evenly because a sudden contraction of one section only, would force the wheel out of shape and spoil its smooth running. A highly skilled performance.

The blacksmiths shop was also the equivalent of the modern agricultural engineers. They would stock plough shares and points and many other small replacements, but their main function was repairing bent and broken implement frames by welding. This was quite a difficult task as the implement would have to be taken to pieces so that the damaged part could be put into the forge fire to get the required heat for welding. There were no acetylene welding sets available at that time as there are on most farms today