If you could travel back to the 1850’s in Stanwell Moor you'd find an open landscape comprising 4 or 5 farms, and 3 water mills spread along the banks of the River Colne. It would have been "pre-reservoirs" so it’s hard to imagine, but it would have been flat as far as the eye could see.
Of the 88 dwellings occupied in the 1851 Census for the village, 53 resident householders earnt their living from farm work and 10 from the mills, with the remaining 30% in predominately supporting roles, and in this article I want to focus on one of those professions, the Blacksmith.
Vintage Postcard © Unknown
A Blacksmith's was a very hot, dirty and noisy place, coming from the furnace, the ash generated and the striking of the metal respectively. Although iron glows red when first removed from the hot coals, as it's being manipulated into the likes of a horse-shoe or a farm tool it turns black and that's when the tradesman would have earnt their money, using brute force to hammer or smite the dark material into shape.
Until the appearance of the combustion engine at the turn of the 20th century the majority of farms were horse-powered, and tasks such as ploughing the fields or transporting produce to market would have involved one or more.
Steam-driven tractors were available as early as the 1790's but the cost and limitations of getting coal and water to the engine and the small acreage involved on Stanwell Moor make it unlikely they were ever in the village. The fact Blacksmiths existed suggests not.
In 1851 Stanwell Moor had one working Blacksmiths along with 3 pubs. There’s a long-standing link between these trades, with the two often co-located and the Blacksmith becoming the Publican at night. This was especially true when the pub was on a main route to London and the Inns were used for the coach horses and their passengers to rest, while the adjacent Blacksmiths were available to re-shoe horses or perform repairs of rolling stock.
The first Smithy in the village was probably adjacent to Felstead - a name that roughly translates to "open fields" - just a few yards from The Anchor and where a car repair yard now stands. It's marked on many Ordnance Survey maps from the period and from what I can determine it was the longest running Blacksmith in the village.
OS 1866 Map © Ordnance Survey
Phillip Bendall, Farrier is listed as paying taxes for a Cottage and Smithy in Stanwell Moor in 1791, likely those shown on the map above.
Some 17 years prior, in January 1774 - and to fix that moment in history, it was just before the American War of Independence - Phillip Bendall had married Margaret Merrick. Phillip was aged 39 and while his profession is not listed, just under four years later he was accused of assault by a man called John Sneaps, and the initial proceedings list both men as Farriers of Stanwell. Quite a change in the relationship given John was one of the witnesses to their marriage! After failing to appear at the Middlesex Sessions in June 1778, John eventually signed a "quitclaim" renouncing any future claim against Phillip, and intriguing though this may be, I'm only flagging it because it identifies Phillip as a Farrier, a part of the Blacksmith's trade specialising in shoeing horses.
The history books suggest that a Farrier's knowledge of horses might also have given them rudimentary veterinary skills, and in extreme cases the tools to remove horses teeth might even have been deployed on the mouths of the people they served!
Phillip had three sons with Margaret, James (1779), Robert (1781) and Jeremiah (1783), however both she and their second son Robert were interred at Stanwell Burial Ground on 8 August 1784, followed by Jeremiah just 15 days later, so ten years after his marriage, Phillip had lost his wife and two children.
On 13 January 1787, Phillip married again, to Frances Clarke, and four years later they had a daughter, Hannah. I can find nothing in the records about Phillip & Margaret's surviving son James, and the trail goes cold on Frances & Hannah too, or whether they had any other children. Phillip on the other hand can still be traced living and working in Stanwell Moor via Tax Records and his name also appears in the Overseers Accounts for the village from 1797, in which he was listed as paying 4 shillings to the "poor tax" for a "House and Smiths Shop".
Overseers Rate & Account Book 1797-1827 (DRO/022/E/02/001) - 1797
© St Mary's, Stanwell via London Metropolitan Archives
In 1813 the Smithy and adjacent cottage, almost certainly Felstead, was put up for auction at The Anchor. As a key landmark in the village, the pub was routinely used for public events such as auctions, but in this case it may have been a family matter since the pub's owner at the time, John Merrick was probably related to Phillip's first wife, Margaret. The Merrick family ran and owned many of the farms in the village, having prospered from the Stanwell Enclosure Act in the 1790's.
As to whether the auction by the Proprietor, "Mr Bendall" led to a sale it's hard to say since the Tax Records for 1814 still show Phillip paying tax for his occupation. In any event that was his last year as the village Blacksmith: he died three years later in the Workhouse, aged 61 and was buried at Stanwell Burial Ground.
Smith's Shop Auction Notice, August 1813
© Windsor and Eton Express, Baylis Media
It's not until 1841 and the first Census of the village that another Blacksmith is evident in Stanwell Moor, when 51 year old Henry Walker appears on the record. It's hard to be certain where Henry's shop was, but it was certainly not beside The Anchor and based on the listing, my educated guess is he plied his trade at The Three Horseshoes pub: the clue's in the name. There's no other Blacksmith in Stanwell Moor in 1841, but 10 years later a 31 year old, David Wild is running the forge at the 'Horseshoes and in the same year there's a Wheelwright, Philip Tillin resident in the village. Philip was 53 and could have been at The Anchor or employed at any one of the 3 Mills - several of his closest neighbours are Millers - but wherever he worked, there was enough business in the area to support two tradesmen.
A Blacksmith was a well established trade in the 1850's, and most were relatively educated men performing a central role in the village. The signatures of the Blacksmiths that worked in our village are all very confident, so they could all write - Philip Bendall signed his marriage certificate, whereas his wife gave her "mark”, an “X” - and they needed to perform arithmetic for their craft, as well as the accounts. Through their work they would have known almost everyone in the village and been acknowledged and respected by the community. However, the job did not pay particularly well and was not for the fainthearted.
There's a story in the Uxbridge and West Drayton Gazette from April 1880 where Blacksmith George White and "of no home" was charged with begging on the Laleham Road, Staines and imprisoned for 14 days.
Regardless, farming and transportation was horse-powered and most villages had at least one Blacksmith, with towns and cities having considerably more. Smith is an "occupational surname" originating from medieval times when population growth required surnames to be introduced, and the fact that it's the most common surname in the UK gives some indication as to just how many Blacksmiths must have been in business at that time.
While the role of the Blacksmith is associated with horseshoes their skills would have gone well beyond, and they may also have been Wheelwrights, like Philip Tillin. A cart wheel had wooden and metal parts, and a typical repair would have involved both metalwork and carpentry skills, to fix either the tread and hub, or the rim and spokes.
Cart at Great Barn, Harmondsworth © Author
It's highly likely the Stanwell Moor Blacksmith would have helped the mill owners with maintenance. Aside from servicing horses and carts, it would have been costly to lose production when a mill had a shaft or gear train failure, so close proximity to a Smithy would have been important for business.
In 1861 with David Wild still at The Three Horseshoes beer-house, a 35 year old Blacksmith, William Webb was now at The Anchor, and with sufficient business to employ a colleague. Only William is still running a Blacksmith's shop at Stanwell Moor in 1871 and again in 1881, making him the longest serving Smithy found on the record, .
The 1891 Census lists the village Blacksmith as William Baker, and he also appeared in Kelly's Directory for 1890 as a Smith & Wheelwright in Stanwell Moor. Three years later Kelly's lists Edward Sweetman as Smith & Farrier, and he reappears in the press in 1895 having had a County Court Judgement against him for £10 7s 2d of debt, suggesting business in the village was becoming less viable.
The last Blacksmith I can track down here is Henry Rogers, who was fined £1 in October 1897 at Staines Petty Sessions for using obscene language. How times have changed!
There is no Blacksmith identified in Stanwell Moor in the 1901 Census, and the forge is listed as "unused" in that for 1911. The Smithy is no longer flagged on the Ordnance Survey map from 1912, and in 1915 the freehold for "a useful building formerly used as a forge...adjoining the Anchor Inn" is put up for sale following the death of the landowner.
While there's little trace of the Blacksmiths left in the village, during work in the late 1990's our builder uncovered a Victorian tip at the rear of the property and in amongst the broken clay pipes, pottery and bottles were two horseshoes.
Horseshoe, 1997 © Author
Our house was built in the early 1960's on the site of a cottage bequeathed in 1828 by Farmer Joseph Merrick to his eldest son, also Joseph. While others occupied the cottage over the years, given the association to the farm it would be reasonable to think these two examples originated from one of the Blacksmiths that served the village.
Sadly I've had very little success in tracing any descendants of the Blacksmiths from the village, nor any images from the period, but there was an "almost" I'd like to share...
For about 15 years I've been trying to track down a painting exhibited at the Royal Society in 1813 by a London artist, John Ward. Titled "Interior of a blacksmith's shop in Stanwell Moor", it would be a great find and I really wanted to have it for this post.
Extract from Royal Academy of Arts, A Complete Dictionary of Contributors, 1769 to 1904
© Henry Graves & Co
I can tell you the Royal Society's Exhibition Room at Somerset House where a painting of our village once hung is now part of the Courtauld Gallery, and a permanent home to paintings by Degas, Manet & Renoir. I can also say that since there's no trace of the Three Horseshoes pub in the village before 1851 it's a fair bet Ward's painting is of the Smithy close to The Anchor. If that's true then we know from the auction notice - coincidentally, the same year of the painting's exhibition - that the premises were "in the Occupation of Mr Bendall" at the time. However, despite all that, sadly I've not managed to find any trace of the painting itself! Has anyone ever seen it or know it's whereabouts?
The Exhibition Room, Somerset House by Rowlandson and Pugin, 1808
© Royal Academy of Arts CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
While the heyday for Blacksmiths may have long passed, there are many phrases still in regular use today that originated from the trade, such as to 'go at it hammer and tongs' highlighting the strength needed to form the metal, or 'having too many irons in the fire' which we use when someone has taken on too much (if there 's too much metal being worked the quality will reduce), and when we say something 'has a nice ring to it' we're harking back to the noise from the hammer striking the anvil.
In closing, if you recognise any of Stanwell Moor's Blacksmiths as one of your descendants or you happen to know the location of John Ward's painting of the village Smithy, then strike while the iron's hot please, and add a comment or get in touch.
February 2025
https://ruralhistoria.com/2023/11/26/the-village-blacksmith/ Great webpage for Blacksmiths in the UK
Overview of Blacksmiths in England
Dentistry
John Sneaps quitclaim, 14 July 1778
Interesting piece about the blacksmith. When we moved in and dug the garden we found a few horseshoes.