The blacksmith used to allow us into his shop, where we could watch him shaping red hot lengths of iron into horseshoes, or welding together white-hot pieces of metal or he and his apprentice making strake nails. The beams in the shop were hung with scores of horseshoes ready to be fitted to the horses from the farms around. We used to beg a horseshoe nail which we used for boring a hole through a conker. There was often a horse being shod in the 'Pentice' and more waiting to be shod outside. Will Taylor was the blacksmith's name.

A travelling salesman used to come every year in the autumn and set up a counter in the Pentice and about 6:00 PM he would start his sale, by the aid of a paraffin flare lamp hanging from above, and some 20 or 30 people used to gather round. He used to sell lots of carpenter's tools; also scissors, hair cutters, garden tools and various other items. He told us that all his tools were best Sheffield steel, and he would exchange any faulty item.

From 'Reminiscences of Life in Brampton Bryan' by Robert Geoffrey Walter Messer 1903-1988 (© Leintwardine History Society)