Skegness Magazine

Visits to the Blacksmith’s Forge After School

By Peter Hopper

The pleasures of boyhood in the 1940s were more often simple things, like visiting the blacksmith’s forge on the way home from school in Skegness.

The blacksmith, Bill Neale,  a kindly man who wore a leather apron, allowed me to work the bellows that made the coke fuel in the fire white hot, whilst he used his skill to hammer out a horseshoe and other metal objects on the anvil.

Horses were brought in to be shod, and it was a privilege to watch as he took off the old shoes and put on new, in the very skilled operation of the farrier.

I had forgotten Mr Neale’s name, so I wrote a letter to the Skegness Standard asking if other people remembered him. Several people did, and sent their replies to my home address.

Long time friend Brian Elliott, first of all  reminded me that the last time we met was when he was climbing into the  ring as a member of the visiting  amateur boxing team, for a match at Cleethorpes He said the forge on Roman Bank was pulled down many years ago, and the house at the side in which the late Mr Neale lived,was called Anvil Cottage, dating back to the 1880s.

Brian, who also  trained as a blacksmith, and still operates the bellows,joked that he still makes the anvil “cringe” at the age of 72. He uses the forge on a casual basis in Croft village, near Skegness, where he lives.

Mr CES Pallender, of Skegness, wrote to tell me that he also visited Mr Neale’s forge to watch a man who was skilled at shoeing horses. He also said that there was another forge in Prince George Street, Skegness, where the blacksmith was a Mr Clarke. I knew Mr Clarke personally, because he was also my  Sunday School teacher at Algitha Road Methodist Church.

Mr Pallender also remembered that the forge at Croft, referred to above, was owned by the Sanderson family and was worked by Mr Charles Sanderson, “a very popular wheelwright.”

Returning to Mr Neale, I concur with Mrs Joan Tasker, who said in her letter that his forge was a warm place to stand on a cold winter’s day. The writer’s name was unfamiliar to me, until she mentioned her maiden name – and the fact that we were in the same class at school!

Mr Stan Raisen, of Spilsby, sent me a newspaper cutting showing  Mr Neale at work shoeing  horse in the forge which was at 57 Roman Bank. The blacksmith had worked there for 30 years, until his death in 1962. By then, there were few working horses left, but Mr Neale had been helped by Truelove’s riding stables  at the OldHall, which used quite a number of horses.

Like me, Mr Raisen used to visit the forge as a schoolboy, as did his brother. “Wonderful memories,” he said.

RW. Pacey, of Skegness,  provided the exact date when Anvil Cottage was built – a plaque on the wall showed it to be  1878, which was probably also the time when the forge was established alongside the blacksmith’s home.

“Bill, his wife and daughter Barbara were to be found on Sunday evening sat on the back row of the  Methodist Church just across the road,” says the writer.

After reading my letter in the Standard, Raymond Cook wrote to say he also enjoyed watching Bill Neale at work. He then became a blacksmith himself, in Wainfleet, and went on to buy Mr Neale’s stock when he died.

Mrs N Sizer, of Burgh-le-Marsh, moved to Skegness with her family in 1932, at a time when her father was a farmer. The first person they got to know in Skegness was Mr Neale and his family, and they became close friends.  When Mrs Sizer married in 1950, Barbara Neale was her bridesmaid.

It just goes to show that everyone loves a blacksmith’s forge – that unforgettable smell of leather and, certainly in Mr Neale’s case, a welcome that was as warm as his workplace.

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Thanks to Peter Hopper for sharing these memories with us all.

Photos of Anvil Cottage coming soon…