He proceeded to pump his bellows with unconcern for those of the inferior world who gathered to watch him at the smiddy (forge) door.

He had a piece of reead yat (red hot) iron in his long pinchers (pincers) and pointed it at them when he wanted to rebuke an individual. 'Aye! that's it Matty! Stand fair i' deear steead an' tak all leet ther is. Ah mud be seear thoo wad.'

The blacksmith's part in the daily needs of village life was vital. He was highly skilled in farriery and he made and repaired tools and appliances for local farms and households.

The old type smiddy was usually sited in the centre of the village it served, quite often near a crossroads.

A fairly large forecourt was useful for the waiting horses and vehicles. Somewhere outside there would be an iron wheel plate, about six feet in diameter, embedded in the ground for use when a wooden wheel was to be hooped with an iron tyre.

The forge's fire was a raised hearth, usually of bricks with a canopy and chimley (chimney) over it. The bellows created the draught of air needed to bring the fire to a sufficient temperature to heat the iron for working.

A lever was used to hand operate the bellows and a blast pipe projected directly into the fire from the bellows.

There was a cooling trough in front of the hearth. This was used for cooling tools and for quenching certain work.

Those villagers in the know would ask the blacksmith for a can of watter frev his 'sleck trough' to use on a sore spot on their flesh.The blacksmith kept his fire at a good working condition by frequently using a slice, rake and poker and with the skeg of his ees to test the colour of the reead yat iron.

The stiddy (anvil) was central to the work of the blacksmith. Ideally it was made of wrought iron, with a steel face added to part of the working surface. At one end of the working surface was a square hole, called a 'hardie hole' to hold the shank of a bottom tool.

Close to this was a round hole over which small holes could be punched. This was normally used to make the nail holes in horse shoes.

The small part of the work surface not covered with steel was called the table, and this softer area was used for some jobs to prevent damage to hardened tools, or to the steel face of the anvil.

The pointed end of the anvil was called the beak, with the throat underneath it.

The stiddy was usually mounted on a squared up piece of elm trunk at a height which suited the individual worker. It normally sloped slightly away from him so that any hot debry fell out of the way.

A floor mandrel, helped in the making of various hooped items. The swage block, with its many notches, holes and curves helped in the shaping of heated iron and the punching of large or irregular holes.

A variety of hammers, each suited to a particular job, and a large sledge hammer that was essential when a striker or hammer-man was assisting with certain work, were continuously being used.

Tengs (tongs) for holding the hot iron were numerous, like so many of the tools were often made by the blacksmith himself or inherited from his family. There were too in greasy boxes drifts and punches for making or enlarging holes.

Tools for cutting iron both in hot and cold work consisted of chisels, sets and hardies. There were also shears for cutting sheet metal. Fullers like blunt chisels could consist of of single or top and bottom tools.

A steel leg vice was in every smiddy. It often had a leg embedded in concrete in the ground to ensure that both vice and bench would withstand the stresses made on them during the various metal work jobs.

A tyre bender of some kind, for these varied from the complex, with several sets of iron rollers rather like a multiple household mangle, which turned by a handle, to a simple bench device.

Many varied and interesting examples of pillar drills on a pedestal and hand operated have existed in old smiddies.

A fitting memorial to the life of a village blacksmith, who often worked beyond the age of of sixty five, is recorded in Jack Danby's, Enjoying East Yorkshire.

It was a commemorative verse on the gravestone of Robert Adams, who died aged 82 in 1827, at Leven.

'My anvil and hammer lies declined,
My bellows too have lost their wind,
My fire's extinct, my forge decayed,
And in the dust my vice is laid.
My coals are spent my iron's gone,
My last nail's drove, my work is done.