Fire in the forge again
On 29 September the stove in the old forge was lit for the first time. There had not been a fire in that hearth for a very long time.
A fire where the forge fire was
In July the old floor came out of the forge and the hearth end was made ready for a stove. This week the stove went in. It stood cold on the 28th, and the next night it was lit.
The photograph is not tidy. There is a level, a pipe elbow and a spray can still on the hearth, and a stepladder behind. I have left it that way, because that is how it looked.
There is a story from the very beginning of this place that I keep thinking of. When James Graham first moved up to Devlinmore, his wife carried coals over in a bucket to light the fire. There were no firelighters then. This one has a glass door and a flue, but it is still a fire in the old forge.
His vice, on a bench to hold it
Davey John’s vice is still here. It is a big leg vice, set on a riveted metal bench with a front of charred timber, its jaws pitted and weathered.
The grindstone, on a new red foot
The old grinding wheel stays. Its cast-iron pedestal has been painted red. Beside it, at the edge of the photograph, is the old stone trough, with a new black door fitted to it.
There is more to come in here, and I will write it up as it happens.
The forge was Davey John’s for the better part of a century. The whole story, five generations of it, is on our story page.
