View allAll Photos Tagged blacksmithing
Slumdog Millionaire redux… at least the slum part of it and the goodness there.
Two weeks into my stay in India and I had to yet to break out the Canon. Real bummer.
I had lugged the darn thing half way across the world with ideas of capturing the old city, the incredible rock formations on the outskirts of the city and exploring monsoon. But Mom needing to be hospitalized changed all that. So the stay had been all about hospital runs and not photography jaunts. I figured that the bleak view out of the hospital window was probably all that I would get. I confess that I did Twitter out a couple of pictures of the same with my trusted Blackberry to satisfy the urge. But you know it is not the same.
Once Mom got back home I figured a short outing, somewhere close by would be OK. But where?
There are slums everywhere in India. Hyderabad is no exception. We have slums and shanties very close to our place. Bingo. A light bulb went off over my head “Slum heroes? Could be interesting”.
I was a little apprehensive as I walked up to the shanties. Hyderabad slums are not on the same scale as the one in the movie Slumdog. But they can still intimidate. Would they look upon me as an intruder and freeze? Or worse, feel antagonized?
Within minutes it was obvious that I had seriously miscalculated. The place was bustling – kids being kids by running amok and playing invented games, busy craftsmen, women folk stoking evening fires and getting dinner started.
The kids were uninhibited and free. They were tugging at my sleeve and asking me to take their picture. Keeping them from the camera and smudging the lens was a bigger challenge than getting to take pictures. You saw all personalities – kids who were completely at ease, absorbed in their games, shy kids who kept moving behind the bigger ones, aggressive ones who pushed away the others and others who went to great lengths for the “look at me”.
Images stood out - the blacksmith and the old lambadi crone. The blacksmith was in his element. Unlike the European smithies who stand at the furnace, this one was seated across from the fire and handling the hot bars with bare hands. Helping him were a couple of ladies who were swinging heavy hammers to flatten the hot metal bars. They had a rhythm going, alternately hitting the piece on the anvil – a primitive Heavy Metal rendition?
What, originally, had been a defensive tactic to show the folks the pictures taken turned out to be a crowd pleaser. It struck me that this was probably the first time that they had seen digital pictures – instantly viewing themselves was a thrill. Their immediate response? Big goofy grins plastered on their faces and then tentatively reaching out to touch the screen.
Finally, oh yeah, the weather did not help at all. Hyderabad was hot and humid – let me say, it was very hot and humid. Everybody was moaning about a stalled monsoon and hoping that the rains would finally come. Clouds would show up and keep on going. Rain? Nada. Zip. Sorry nothing for you today.
The blacksmith lapwing or blacksmith plover (Vanellus armatus) occurs commonly from Kenya through central Tanzania to southern and southwestern Africa. The vernacular name derives from the repeated metallic 'tink, tink, tink' alarm call, which suggests a blacksmith 's hammer striking an anvil.
This blacksmith is still in business at the Blacksmith Street,Malacca. I hope, one lucky day, I can come across the blacksmith working here, cross my fingers.
Rowes foundry and blacksmith business in Mintaro was established in the early 1850s when bullock teams from the Burra Copper Mine were passing through the town on their way to the coast at Port Wakefield. it is now well restored. The white Cockie on the roof is real.
Legend has it that Mintaro was named by Spanish mule and bullock drivers from Uruguay who carted copper through this spot in their way from Burra to Port Wakefield from 1853-57. In Spanish Mintaro means “camping spot.” But Mintaro was named four years before these Spanish team drivers arrived in SA! The government surveyed and put up for auction land here in 1849. Before this time the area was part of a pastoral lease for Martindale Station established by the Bowman brothers in 1841 and other pastoralists like Arthur Young. Bowmans had 11,000 acres here. When the government sold land here in 1849 Henry Gilbert of Pewsey Vale and Gilberton purchased it. He then subdivided part of his lands to create a town which he called Mintaro after a local Aboriginal word
meaning “place of netted water.” Gilbert was speculating on making money from a town ideally situated for the bullock teams travelling south from Burra as it straddle the Wakefield River. Next to Gilbert’s land an Irishman Joseph Brady purchased land at Mintaro north. He later discovered excellent quality slate there and began slate mining which still continues to this day. Brady was the man who donated two acres to the Catholic Church in 1855. The town grew quickly but when the railway reached Gawler in 1857 the bullock teams altered their routes south and the town was bypassed by most teams from that time onwards.
But the 1850s were still good times for Mintaro. Cottages with walled gardens were constructed as well as several stores, the Devonshire Hotel, the Primitive and Wesleyan Methodist and Catholic churches and the flourmill. The slate quarries boosted the town despite the lack of traffic passing through it. Brady leased the quarry to Thompson Priest who managed the quarries which employed a third of the town’s males. Apart from town buildings great construction works occurred in the early 1880s. It was at that time that one of the young Bowman men, Edmund, aged 21 years, had Martindale Hall built at a cost of £30,000. Nearby the Chief Justice of South Australia Sir Samuel Way purchased the property Kadlunga. That property dated from the 1850s when it was owned by the English and Australian Copper Company. The homestead dates from around 1857 when the Company installed Mr Melville as the resident manager. The Company sold Kadlunga in 1871. The Chief Justice purchased Kadlunga in 1880 and added an upper storey to the house. Meantime Thompson Priest who leased the slate quarries died in 1885 and the Mintaro slate quarries closed until 1893 when a local syndicate was formed to reactivate the quarries. 2,500 shares were sold to a group of local men who restarted the operations to keep the town economically strong.
Historical Walk in Mintaro with buildings numbered on map above.
1. Police Station. First station was built in 1868 but the current Police Station dates from 1881/1882. It was designed by the Government Architect and is identical to many others in SA. Cost over £1,000 to build. Note fine jails, exercise yards and stables at the rear. Now a private residence.
2. Wakefield Cottage. An atypical cottage probably built in the 1860s but with Indian cedar shingles on the roof and a fine slate fence. The original owner, John Smith also had the Magpie and Stump Hotel and the adjacent flourmill. In 1924 the Mortlocks of Martindale Hall purchased this property.
3. Flour mill Ruins. The mill here operated from 1858 to 1895. It was two stories high and steam driven. Recently it has been converted into a fine house with a corrugated iron domed roof.
4. Magpie and Stump Hotel. First hotel on this site opened 1851 for the bullock drivers taking copper from Burra to Port Wakefield. Up to 30 bullock teams camped near here each night. Original hotel burnt down in 1902 and present hotel was erected 1904. Good façade with corner veranda. Dining room incorporates the old bakehouse ovens.
5. Shop and Cottage. This is now a fine restaurant. Built around 1856 combining residence and shop. Window is finely glazed and it has a separate skillion roof on the veranda. Opposite the hotel.
6. Mintaro House. Cornish style structure with buttress sidewalls. It has a well roof and was built in 1855 by the first licensee of the Magpie and Stump Hotel. At one stage it was a National Bank and later a butcher shop.
7. The Institute. Local stone institute built in 1878 by local builders William and John Hunt. Stonemasons were Thomas Priest and John Trucker. Georgian in style. It was the centre of the educational and social life of the town.
8. Post Office. Next door to the Institute. A Victorian building from 1866 in Italianate style. Warm coloured stone brackets support the roof. Telegraph arrived in Mintaro here in 1873.
9. Mintaro Mews row of shops. This impressive building with the large Moreton Bay Figs in front has upstairs dormer windows. The lower floor has a fine bay windows and good glazing. Originally this was a row of shops with accommodation upstairs. The house has slate floors from Mintaro slate quarries and to assist ladies climbing onto horses there is a mounting stone in front of it. Some walls are of slate too. It was built in three stages between 1856 and 1866. It was purchased in 1922 by the Mortlocks who owned Martindale Hall. They stabled some of their racing horses here! More recently it has been used for bed and breakfast accommodation.
10. Devonshire Hotel. Across the street from Mintaro Mews is the former Devonshire Hotel. It was built in 1856 and first licensed to James Torr until he sold it in 1864. The large cellars originally were fitted out with a skittle alley. The main hall in the hotel was 23 feet by 68 feet and was used for concerts. Grim times arrived in 1898 when Charles Grimm bought it and converted it into a temperance hotel! It then became a private residence. From the rear it is a two storey structure.
11. Lathean’s Post Office and Store at left. The Richards house next door dates from 1854 but the store was built in 1862. The Post Office operated from here from 1862 to 1866. Not much remains of the store except a wall with a window with a fine brick voussoir above the window. The store was Georgian in style. In the 1890s it became a carpenter’s shop run by a Mr Denton, hence the sign for undertakers.
12. Rowe’s Blacksmith’s Shop. Further along Burra Street beyond Young Street and over the creek are the remains of the foundry. At one stage the town had three blacksmiths. Note the ventilation ridge common to all blacksmiths on the top ridge of the roof. Mr Rowe started his business in the 1850s when the bullock teams were passing through the town. He won a prize for agricultural implements at the Auburn Show in 1861. This fine stone building is well worth a look. It was constructed between 1858 and 1861. Rowe ran the blacksmithing business until the 1890s.
13. Miller House. This fine residence on the hill with warm stone work, casement windows and an Edwardian wooden decorative veranda was built for a Mr Miller in 1853. The residence has a German appearance so Mr Miller was probably of German background. Note the steeply pitched roof line which is typically German.
14. Mintaro Primary School. A private school was started in the Primitive Methodist Chapel in 1858. Local people raised money to build a partially government funded school in 1872. In 1878 after the 1875 Free, Compulsory and Secular Education Act the government authorised expenditure for an expansion of the state school in Mintaro. The teacher’s residence was built in 1924.
15. Anglican House. This delightful cottage was built in 1856 as a religious building hence the Gothic style windows. At one stage it was a private school but it was probably sold when the Anglicans purchased the former Primitive Methodist church across the street in 1905. It is now a private house.
16. Chimney House. Isaac Duance had this cottage built in 1855. James Fry acquired it in 1869. Note the square, rectangular & round chimneys on this cottage hence the name ascribed to it.
17. Methodist Manse. Just off Young Street is the Methodist manse built in two different styles in two different eras. The older part was built 1859 with a Georgian style fanlight above the front door. The new part was built in typical late 19th century Australian style.
18. Wesleyan Methodist Church. The first Wesleyan Methodist church was opened in 1858. Then a second church was built in front of with an opening service in May 1867. The 1867 church is Gothic with small buttresses on the side. It is built of sandstone. It has good views across the vale to the Catholic Church on the next hill which opened as the Church of the Immaculate Conception in November 1856 ,making it one of the oldest Catholic churches in a SA. The land was donated by Mr Brady who ran Mintaro slate quarries. He also contributed significant funds to the building appeal for the church. Refreshments and entertainment after the opening was held at the home of Mr Brady.
20. Anglican church. On the corner of Young Street is the Anglican Church which was originally built by the Primitive Methodist church in 1858. When the Primitive Methodists and Wesleyan Methodists united in 1900 the Primitive Methodist church was sold to the Anglicans for a mere £90. This was in 1905 but it still sounds like a good buy.
Mintaro Railway station later Merildin Station and now deserted.
When the Burra railway line came through this area a station called Mintaro was established here with a wooden station. In 1873 the fine sandstone goods shed was erected. Then in 1899 a new blue stone station with a fancy wrought iron fringe over the platform was erected. That station was almost identical with those in Farrell Flat, Saddleworth, Manoora etc. The station closed in December 1986. It has now been sold to a local farmer. Its name was changed from Mintaro to Merildin in 1917.
The Washingtonia palms are quite common around railway stations in SA as at one stage the government issued each stationmaster with at least two palms.
Blacksmith at work.
A trip with Peter and Danny to the British Waterways museum at Ellesmere Port, for the Easter boat gathering of narrow boats and sea shanty festival.
To the Avalonia guild on EB
Weyland the smith owns this blacksmith that is in the great capital of Avalonia, Albion. His skills is not into making swords, Weyland is Avalonia best man to shoe the horses and to repair all kind of carts. His cousin Quinlan also works in the blacksmith. Today he is shoing a horse while Weyland fixes a carts wheel.
if I give you my heart
it doesn't mean that I'm giving up
it just means that I'm waiting
for a shot at redemption
and damnation has taken enough
"pour me back in,"
that's the blacksmith's prayer
quench me in the water
before I cool in the air
don't make me breathe
that's the worst that could happen
give me a gift of all that I've stolen
don't discount my chains
let me leave a free man
a waterbound spirit searching for land
a peaceful warrior, a cowardly soldier
a watched pot soul starting to stir
a focused mind
in love with the blur
© Steve Skafte
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A blacksmith operates a bellows with his right hand (left) and holds a poker in his left in the smithy at Old Sturbridge Village, a recreation of a New England village in the early 1800s.
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* More of my "Weather Vane" photos can be *
* seen here My Weather Vane Album *
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After two years I'm finally sharing these photos of my latest Dark Age creation, a medieval Blacksmith Watermill that specialize on making enchanted weapons. Using the nearby river, the mill mechanism turns the shafts and powers the blacksmith drop-hammer.
It has a vegetable garden and a courtyard as well as a kitchen and smokestack. I built-in Power Functions to light up both the fireplace and the oven, as well as move the water wheel and drop hammer. I have a full video on this MOC on my YouTube channel here - youtu.be/81YqJs8wtBg
I hope you enjoy my creation, and check out the video!
Dropped by the village on our day off to get a few more shots. Caught the blacksmith in a restful moment.
He is very friendly and let me took a few pictures of him. Although his blacksmith shop will be closed soon because of the government policy, he still remains optimistic. Hope he has enough money to go for dialysis in future and may he in the pink of health.
I paid a visit to this local blacksmith every week to buy handmade knives, axes, adzes and hoes to take home. He has a piece of railway track as an anvil and his son Jameson works the bellows. They use any scrap metal they find to make some good tools. He sells knives for K4000 (50p), Axes for K15000 (£1.85) and hoes about K18000 (£2.25).