And further back along the Maine Valley….. Boolteen’s Blacksmith, Florence O’Sullivan will feature on Nationwide after the Six-One News tonight, Friday, November 24th. at 7pm.
Florence represents the fourth generation of smiths in his family line one of whom established the forge in ‘The Mall’ in the early 1870s.
Never Looked Back
Florence left school early to go and work in the forge by the side of the house with his father and he never looked back since.
He often lamented the dying away of the trade from which he and all before him made a good living. So too that he is the last in the line and that the trade will go with him when he goes.
Village of his Birth
Florence never married and neither had he any great desires to travel too far from the village of his birth.
Shoeing horses, repairing trailers and farm equipment meant that the music of the forge rang out through the village from early morning to late on summer evenings.
As my own grandfather was a blacksmith I often watched and listened to the industry of the man who will feature on television this evening.
He is now in his 85th year and without a notion of retiring.
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