First Trainees of Heritage Blacksmithing

The National Heritage Ironwork Group’s (NHIG) first eight trainees, selected from applicants from all over the UK, on their Heritage Blacksmiths Bursary training programme will start on the 23rd May. These semi-skilled blacksmiths, six men and two women, will be the first to receive one year of specialised Blacksmith Conservator training as part of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) ‘Skills for the Future’ programme.

It has long been recognised that our Heritage Ironwork has suffered from a lack of readily available trained and skilled practitioners in conservation practice and although there are several high quality firms specialising in restoration ironwork the size of our ironwork heritage is so vast it means that inappropriate and damaging processes and treatments are being applied countrywide to often unique and irreplaceable artefacts almost on a daily basis.

The NHIG Heritage Blacksmith Bursary has been put in place to address this need by providing the beginnings of a skilled and experienced cohort of practitioners able to not only work on sensitive ironwork artefacts but also work effectively with fellow professionals in the field. It is an advanced training program that broadens the skills and experience of blacksmiths involved in historic ironwork repairs by bringing together the best of blacksmithing craft practise and the philosophy and ethics of conservation.

44 year old bursary student Alexander Coode said; ‘I am passionate about the heritage of ironwork and feel that the protection of antique ironwork is of vital importance for the conservation of heritage sites and am keen to play whatever role is possible in support of this aim. I believe that the completion of the Heritage Blacksmith course would be an invaluable asset in establishing the necessary benchmarks to be followed in undertaking any future restoration project.’

The course is a one year full time commitment catering for eight students per year, with a total number of sixteen, over the two year programme. It provides real and relevant training by being made up of a series of practical skill based and conservation based work placements. The first placement is at Hampton Court Palace where they will gain practical experience of ironwork conservation and holding repair works under the supervision of a specialist conservator. In July they will learn pure conservation in a museum environment, at Hereford Museum, The Royal Armouries and Birmingham Museum where amongst other things they will have the chance to work on the Staffordshire Hoard of mediaeval goldsmiths’ work. Thereafter the students will visit a number of established blacksmiths’ workshops for periods of on-the-job training. Chris Topp & Co based in Tholthorpe and Carlton Husthwaite will host all eight of this years students between July and May 2012.

The bursary programme has been enhanced by the inclusion of a five week block release course in the conservation of ironwork at Hereford College of Technology (HCT) – the leading British training establishment for forge work skills. The HCT syllabus has been specially developed to complement the work based learning in order that the student receives a holistic education programme with essential underpinning knowledge. Trainees will attend HCT for one week at a time between workshop placement swaps.

The bursary will culminate in the achievement of the NHIG Award for Blacksmithing Conservation. This is a competency work based award covering specialist units in forge work conservation which formally offers students the opportunity to demonstrate the skills gained during the course. The award standards are derived from Construction Skills National Occupation Standards for Heritage skills level 3 blacksmithing option route with an assessment process that reflects the accepted NVQ Level 3 model. This is aimed at ensuring long lasting value and recognition of the qualification gained and the possibility of linkage to any future courses that are developed from this programme after it has ended.

The college part of this programme is seen as the first step in the process of developing and building a permanent heritage blacksmithing training route. Although current funding will run out after two years the project is intended to be the pump priming for an ongoing requirement for training and a qualification in the sector. This is seen as a requirement at present in other built heritage craft sectors when engaging individuals / companies and the field of heritage ironwork deserves no less. NHIG are not alone in this view and are proud to announce that having reviewed our training plan English Heritage have endorsed this programme.

Bill Martin, Conservation Director for English Heritage said ‘The field of architectural metals conservation has for too long awaited a framework to successfully bind together the essential skills of the metals conservator and the conservation blacksmith; the aims of the National Heritage Ironwork Group will go a long way to deliver this. English Heritage fully supports these aims and we intend to contribute in every way that we can to ensure their successful development.'

For more information on the bursary aims and objectives as well as how it has been set up and is being run you can download the ‘Heritage Blacksmiths Bursary Programme Overview’ from the bursaries page of the NHIG website at www.nhig.org.uk

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Time Team - Phil Harding films at our workshop.

We were asked to make a replica cannon muzzle to help show that local blacksmiths in the late 1400’s could have easily adapted their skills from producing cart wheels to making the staves for a muzzle and how the handmade making of each muzzle had it’s own ‘signature mark’. Chris and Arek spent an afternoon in the workshop with Time Team presenter Phil Harding making the wrought iron staves and hoops for a cannon.

In a recent Channel 4 programme the "Wars of the Roses: A Time Team Special", Tony Robinson discovered that what a team of archaeologists, who have been working for the last 5 years, has found is changing the entire understanding, not just of this iconic battle, but the very nature of warfare during Medieval times.

Bosworth is a site of national historic significance, being the location of one of the three most important battles fought on British soil. It is the site where the Battle of Bosworth took place in 1485 and infamous as the place where King Richard III lost his life and against huge odds Henry Tudor won the battle and the Tudor reign was born. It was a turning point in English history, the end of the Middle Ages and the savage beginnings of the country we recognise today.

Experts now believe that the battle was not only fought in an entirely different place from the 'official' site but that gunpowder weapons, including large cannons, were used in far larger numbers than previously thought. In order to test these theories the Time Team crew built and fired replica cannons and cannon balls, and deployed some of the most sophisticated cameras in the world to examine the grisly remains of soldiers killed in the Wars.

The conclusions they have drawn radically change the view of medieval warfare being ruled by knights in shining armour.

This Channel 4 TV programme was broadcast on the 16th March 2011

Ely Cathedral Screens

Ely Cathedral Screens

Rarely do we have the opportunity to create in wrought iron a large new work of art such as a reredos in a building as large and prestigious as Ely Cathedral.

Our team have just finished constructing (Feb 2011) a five-metre wide and five-metre high screen for the cathedral’s Lady Chapel. It is in a central location behind the altar and under the large main east window of the Chapel. This part of the cathedral dates back to the fourteenth century and still today daily services are held. An altar table and candle standards have also being made.

The project comprises the largest piece of elaborate ecclesiastical wrought iron work created by us in our 30-year history. It is also possible that the screen is the largest piece of new ironwork placed in 900-year-old Ely Cathedral for nearly two centuries. We are proud to think that our new screen could remain in the cathedral for centuries” and it has been a privilege to have been commissioned to undertake this work and an honour for the talented group of traditional blacksmiths working here.

The screen has been designed by John Maddison, a Cambridgeshire based artist and expert on medieval architecture. John recommend us for the commission of this intricate construction because he had worked with him before and he is an admirer of the quality and skill of our staff. John felt our experience in this field and Chris's talents would contribute to the finished product.

The work has been done in traditional style, emulating the high standard of craftsmen working in wrought iron for centuries and rarely practised today. For example there is no modern electric welding of joints: instead the time-honoured use of wedges has been employed on the screen.

John Maddison’s design is very modern in concept and is cleverly arranged to show off the remains of an early, fourteenth century reredos, carved into the chapel wall. A rectilinear framework is distinguished by the use of blacksmith-made pierced joints held together in time-honoured fashion by means of iron wedges. Projecting upper parts of the screen add another dimension while their style makes reference to their gothic surroundings.

We scour the world for ancient wrought iron that can be re-rolled for use today. The screen for Ely Cathedral was made with wrought iron that previously was part of large chains raised from the seabed of the former Gibraltar naval dockyard! The use of wrought iron, well known for its long life, as well as being a joy for the smiths to work with, will guarantee that the reredos will last for a few centuries to come.

Television programmes filmed at our workshop

The Channel Four TV programme – Time Team have again filmed at our workshop for a forthcoming episode to be screened on Wednesday 16^th March at 8pm. In this episode Tony Robinson examines new research into the Battle of Bosworth, which challenges the understanding of this iconic battle and the entire nature of medieval English warfare. The Time Team presenters and film crew were filming us making a replica cannon as part of the understanding of past skills and techniques.

Blink Films filmed at our workshops for a documentary about the Eiffel Tower called ‘Monumental Challenge’.

The Eiffel Tower is undergoing a restoration programme, the first major works since the tower was built in 1889. It was built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, which was to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the French Revolution. Its construction in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days was a technical and architectural achievement and was only intended to last for 20 years.

Blink Films have captured this major programme of works and explains how this now iconic monument has stood the test of time and why the wrought iron material used in its creation is so important.

Blink Films filmed at our workshop the processes; we still use, which would have been used in the making of the 7,300 tonnes of wrought iron for its construction.

This documentary is being shown on the History Channel towards the end of March.

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