The Blacksmith played a vital role in an 1850's mining village. There was often rivalry as to whether the Smithy was more important than the pub.

In the 1850's, nothing was mass produced and anything made of steel was either made in a small manufacturing forge or by the blacksmith. All his work was done simply by heating steel in his forge and shaping it while it was hot and malleable.

In the early days he would have burnt charcoal. Our "smithys" use coke (partly burnt coal) for heat. In order to get the heat required to forge wrought iron, a large bellows is used to blow a stream of air over the charcoal or coke to make it burn faster. Once the metal is hot enough, the blacksmith will use a variety of hammers and other tools against his anvil to form the metal into the required shapes, or to weld pieces of metal together.

The "Smithy" was important in that he repaired picks, axes, wheels, shod horses and made items such as hinges and hammers and branding irons as well as basic cutlery. Iron knives, forks and spoons needed to be washed before the meal to remove any residual rust.

The Smith's apprentice was usually the first to arrive at a fire, to be sure to salvage nails, hinges etc. for recycling.