No 12. Already half way to Christmas Eve! The weather remains kind although the temperature is only slightly above freezing. The unveiling party is therefore a very happy but rather brief affair!

Photographs on the next page. (Click on “Read the rest of this entry”)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photograph from about 1914 taken in Church Street, showing the former Blacksmith’s forge and what seems to be a charabanc outing.

 

Photo: Unknown (courtesy Gascoigne family).
George Gascoigne, the last blacksmith in Sulgrave, shoeing a horse outside the Forge,
Church Street. Early 1950s. In the background George’s son, Bernard, is shoeing another horse. The sportsman with the shotgun is Marcus Linton who lived in Church Cottage (now the home of Hywel and Ingram Lloyd). He was a regular army officer, sadly killed in a helicopter accident when on an official visit to Russia.

Photo: Michael Constable.
1967. George Gascoigne, at his forge in Church Street.

My father, Sidney Wootton and various uncles were teenagers in the early 1930s. Not always having the wherewithal for a pint at the nearby Six Bells or the Star Inns, they would frequently gather in the warmth of the blacksmith’s shop in winter evenings. They provided welcome extra hands to pump the bellows and use long handled grips to carry red hot iron tyres to the waiting wooden cart wheel on the floor. At least four were needed for this activity. Once in place buckets of cold water were thrown on to the tyre which then contracted, closing the wheel rim tightly on to the spokes.

Photo: Unknown (courtesy Gascoigne family).
More horses being shod.

 

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