School: Westland (roll number 8428)

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1. Forges (continued)

   

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   Here is a story I got. A boy working here had a corn on his toe and he could hardly walk.
   One day he was in the forge and he took off his shoe and sock and bathed the toe in the forge water. Between picking at it and bathing it in the water the corn came out and the toe got better.
   Long ago in my Grandfather's time it seems that a special kind of fuel was perpared for smelting iron. I do not know what the substance was, but it was a black stuff, as well as my old aunt remembers, and it was used before coal became common. As my aunt describes it, it was something like slack.
   The subtance was piled in a heap. A hollow was made in the centre as a woman would make a hollow in flour to drop in eggs if she were making a cake. A fire was lighted in the hollow. Then a wall of yellow clay was made round it and it was covered over with the clay until no air could get at it. Then an old woman or man would sit and watch it for fear a naughty child would poke it with a stick and let the air in because then it would be all spoiled. After a certain time the morter was broken, and then the stuff inside was ready for the black smith to burn. It was so hard it had to be broken with a sledge.
   Smiths were alway looked upon as being very strong, and their house and forges were the centres for

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. economic activities
         1. trades and crafts (~4,680)
            1. smithing (~2,389)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Betty Mc Whirter

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Drumlayne, Co. Meath

   Informant

   Mr R. Mc Whirter

   Relation

   Parent

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Drumlayne, Co. Meath