Sidlesham Forge: The life of a village blacksmith over three generations

It was said that if you wanted to know where anyone lived, you asked the blacksmith, and that must have been true of the Staceys, as several generations of the family served as the village blacksmith in Sidlesham.
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Albert Stacey came to the village from Shaftesbury before World War One to join James Bull at the blacksmith’s shop in Sidlesham Common.

He taught his son Fred Stacey the work of the farrier and although Fred spent some time working in Southbourne, he moved to Sidlesham to work with his father after the war.

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Fred Stacey watching his son Frederick and John Kerley in the early 1940s as they hammer a heated iron tyre on a cartwheel prior to dousing it with water to cool and shrink it on the felloes.Fred Stacey watching his son Frederick and John Kerley in the early 1940s as they hammer a heated iron tyre on a cartwheel prior to dousing it with water to cool and shrink it on the felloes.
Fred Stacey watching his son Frederick and John Kerley in the early 1940s as they hammer a heated iron tyre on a cartwheel prior to dousing it with water to cool and shrink it on the felloes.
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Fred’s son, Frederick William Stacey, continued the family tradition, learning much of his trade from Archie Cripps, a skilled wheelwright.

The Stacey family lived a few hundred yards from the forge and kept a large garden. Mr and Mrs Stacey were keen members of the horticultural society and active in the church, where Frederick played the organ for 25 years and served on the Parochial Church Council.

Poorly rewarded, the work of the farrier was hard and dirty, the hours long. Fred did not want his son to carry on in his trade and Frederick did not want to either. He was apprenticed to Jay’s Marine in East Street, Chichester, as a heating engineer and then moved to Toogood and Rawlings in Bognor Regis.

But a motorcycling accident left him with severe injuries and he was unable to work for a couple of years. Then, after a spell working for a local builder, Frederick joined his father at the forge at the age of 20.

Charlie Earwicker with a sturdy old two-wheel cart made by the Staceys and their wheelwright in the early daysCharlie Earwicker with a sturdy old two-wheel cart made by the Staceys and their wheelwright in the early days
Charlie Earwicker with a sturdy old two-wheel cart made by the Staceys and their wheelwright in the early days
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Eventually, Frederick persuaded his father they needed more space and they were able to acquire land from the Church Commissioners to build a new works to carry on the business with modern plant.

Speaking to our Yesterday magazine in August 1990, Frederick said: “We were able to finance this thanks to a loan from the Rural Industries Bureau. I owe a lot to the bureau, later called COSIRA, the Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas. They were a tremendous help to me and I tried to put a little bit back by serving on the Rural Community Council Committee for years, attending meetings in Lewes.”

The works were extended over the years, gaining a good reputation for structural steelwork, and the site of the old forge was taken over by a bungalow.

Frederick Stacey, who was secretary of the West Sussex branch of the National Master Blacksmiths and Agricultural Engineers Association, and his wife at a county show exhibit in EastbourneFrederick Stacey, who was secretary of the West Sussex branch of the National Master Blacksmiths and Agricultural Engineers Association, and his wife at a county show exhibit in Eastbourne
Frederick Stacey, who was secretary of the West Sussex branch of the National Master Blacksmiths and Agricultural Engineers Association, and his wife at a county show exhibit in Eastbourne
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Horses and horse-drawn tackle provided much work for the forge when Frederick was a lad and when he joined his father in the late 1920s, there were still a few horses, before their role was usurped by machinery.

“On a wet morning, I have seen as many as eight horses lined up waiting to be shod and I was very proud of my father’s skill as a farrier,” he told Yesterday.

“My father was in much demand by vets from a wide area because he knew the anatomy of horses’ legs and feet and he could make surgical shoes to correct faults. Father had a way with all animals, particularly horses, and he would not stand for anybody ill-treating them.

“He started at 6.30am and sometimes went on until 9 o’clock at night. He loved his garden as well and at one stage he also had a ten-acre smallholding at Highleigh, where he bred pigs.

Frederick Stacey in part of his workshop in Sidlesham in August 1990Frederick Stacey in part of his workshop in Sidlesham in August 1990
Frederick Stacey in part of his workshop in Sidlesham in August 1990
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“Not a tall man, he was broad and powerful, yet I often wondered how he had the strength to do it all. It was dreadfully hard work. When shoeing, he could be holding up part of a horse which weighed three-quarters of a ton.

“The pay was very poor and farmers were slow payers – some of them were hard-up, too. I remember he used to shoe four heavy horses for 7s 6d, including the shoes, and that would have taken him an hour and a half at least, and the shoes would have been made beforehand. Later on, they bought in made shoes and altered them as needed.

“Working with these heavy and powerful animals could be dangerous. Some of them were overfed and very fractious. My father had been badly trampled before moving to Sidlesham, when he was shoeing at Thorney Island, and I remember his clothes being brought home covered in blood, even though I was very young at the time.

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“His leg had to be wired to set and he was in hospital for a long time. He still got into the Army in World War One and worked on transport.

“After his experience at Thorney, father was very careful and usually managed to avoid injury but I remember one occasion when he had driven home a tapered horseshoe nail, chipped it and was about to turn the end into the hoof when this big horse pull back his foot. Father had been unable to hold it and the nail ripped right down his arm. He came to me and I poured iodine on it yet he didn’t even flinch. He was such a brave man.”

Tom Bonner ploughing on Miss Earwicker's Reigate Farm in the 1920s, using tackle that would have been repaired at Sidlesham forgeTom Bonner ploughing on Miss Earwicker's Reigate Farm in the 1920s, using tackle that would have been repaired at Sidlesham forge
Tom Bonner ploughing on Miss Earwicker's Reigate Farm in the 1920s, using tackle that would have been repaired at Sidlesham forge

In those days, there were two separate forges in the smithy, a separate shoeing house big enough for two horses. The forge fire would go out within ten minutes if it was not blown. Coke was used and it was always put on wet. It formed big clinkers and eventually these had to be taken out and the fire rebuilt.

Frederick said: “If they were joining two pieces of metal together, the temperature had to be just beyond melting point. The iron had to be just right to be hammered together. If the smith was to wait a few seconds too long, it would run. Iron and mild steel are the same to look at but iron has a lower carbon content and thus withstands rust longer than steel.

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“The forge was a hot place and my grandfather used to drink a lot of beer to make up for it, though my father drank nothing but homemade wine. Initially, the forge was hand-pumped, later we used powered bellows and I had quite a job to get father to accept them.”

The village thought highly of Fred, who was an honest man, a skilled worker and a diligent parish councillor. When he died in January 1954 at the age of 69, St Mary’s Church was packed for the funeral.

Like many men who depended on hand skills, he was resistant to change and mechanisation. Frederick got much opposition to the purchase of an engine but when it was fitted up to a drill for repeat work, his father soon saw that such advancements would more than pay for themselves. Eventually, a big engine at the other end of the works drove a planing machine, circular saw and mortising machine.

Fred was also highly skilled at decorative wrought ironwork, only a small part of the business compared with such tasks as looking after the binders used on the farms. In those days, wooden-framed harrows with spikes were used a lot and any breakages would be repaired, with pieces welded on or made anew.

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There were hard times in the depression of the early 1930s but as the tractor began to take over from the horse, the forge developed a sturdy line in trailers, a natural follow-on from the wooden horse-drawn carts.

The establishment of Land Settlement Association smallholdings for long-term unemployed men from the north and Wales brought a welcome boost to business. Over the years, the Staceys built 40 four-ton trailers for them, as well as turning their hands to making steel-framed glasshouses and other equipment.

Eventually, as sophisticated mechanisation took over, Frederick began to concentrate on structural steelwork, expanding the business to a staff of 22.

Engineering commissions brought new challenges and work was diverse, including such projects as additions to the lock gate mechanism at Chichester Yacht Basin, a sports ground stadium, steelwork for extensions to Chichester Festival Theatre, staircases at Chichester Leisure Centre and the steel skeleton for Arundel Cathedral’s 52ft spire.

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This was all a long way from a village smithy but Frederick never forgot his roots and should a villager pop in for a new handle to be fitted to a spade, they would no doubt get it.

Frederick, who was a long-standing member of Chichester Lions Club, serving the community for 38 years, died in 2004 aged 96.

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