Hey Blog! I’ve decided to write this post about one of the best chances I have had this year – one that keeps going and getting better with every week!
It was a very long time ago that I told you about making my own poker at High Peak Junction. As in, three years ago. But. I have returned – and it’s all thanks to an advert which asked for young people interested in heritage and blacksmithing, who would be keen to undertake a volunteer apprenticeship in blacksmithing at the forge. Obviously, this was right up my street. Exactly. Therefore, I applied – along with 44 other people, apparently, and made it to the interview stage. I evidently carried myself well through the interview, because I got one of only two places. I can’t remember what I told them at this stage, but it seems the blacksmith and admin person from the council both liked what I had to say.
I should say at this point, the forge is run by the council after they took over the historic buildings of the Cromford and High Peak Railway after it was dissolved. The forge is in the oldest surviving railway workshop in the world, as we tell all visitors – there is a workshop in Wales which is the oldest in continuous use, but ours is the oldest building; it predates the railways themselves. The notch cut in the keystone of the front door was made to allow steam engine funnels to enter the building, because when the doorway was made, there were no steam trains! The building itself is full of a thousand little quirks that make working there a delight, even without getting to hit things with hammers!
There isn’t time for the technicalities of blacksmithing, and even if there was, I’m still only an apprentice. For all my top grade in chemistry, it doesn’t cover the full details of ironworking – and obviously not how it feels to work with in the hand. STOP DON’T TOUCH I didn’t mean hold literally red-hot metal in the hand. You hold that bit with tongs. Incidentally, I prefer the old style tongs to the modern mole grips; they clamp better and are longer so you don’t get as hot. They rely on your holding them rather than a grip you can’t regulate. The old blacksmiths knew what worked and what they were doing! We’ve even discussed doing a few weeks of toolmaking, following in the tradition of the previous smiths to work at the forge, who made most of the tools hanging up in the workshop. However, our only attempt at that – with an old campervan spring, which should be tool-grade steel – failed, probably because of flaws in the metal created over the 30 years it kept the campervan driving.
The rambling above is an accurate representation, on a smaller scale, of the diversity of our conversations at the forge – me, Tony the official blacksmith, and Michael, the other young person who got a place, who it turns out I knew already… because he’s also on the Derbyshire Scout Archaeology Youth Committee! Tony was also a Scout leader some years ago, so with three people engaged in Scouting, who love ironworking, are interested in history and heritage, and hold intriguing bits of knowledge which spills out into conversation, it’s amazing fun. We’ve started laughing over things like “the four way puff”: what happens when you quench a square bar of steel slowly, and the steam comes shooting out from the four faces as it goes in; we’ve discussed the prices for pirate body parts lost in combat; realised that our names fit with the main characters from a TV series neither of us young people has watched called Knight Rider; and there’s always a handshake at the start and end of the day. I love it.
Another exciting chance has also come through this, and it’s just arrived in the local paper. The only time I’ve read the Derby Telegraph is to see this article, but it’s a good one – detailing our activities at the forge, with some good and some goofy pictures. At least the flat cap looks good in them! I suggest you give it a read, at https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/meet-derbyshire-teenagers-keeping-age-11141811.
As it says, the position lasts for a year. So there’ll be plenty more sessions in the forge, learning to make different things! I can’t wait!