School: Berrings (Measctha) (roll number 4186)
- Location:
- Berrings, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Domhnall Ó Drisceoil
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0348, Page 135
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Berrings (Measctha)
- XML Page 135
- XML “Forges”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- (continued from previous page)sides is an opening to admit air when the bellows is extended. A valve shuts this opening when the handles of the bellows is pressed down and the enclosed air is forced through the pipes of the bellows. It is a very large bellows, is fixed to a bench, separated from the fire by a light wall through an opening in which the pipe of the bellows conveys the "blow" to the fire.
In the yard of the forge there is provision made for a second fire which is lighted for the 'banding' of wheels - cart wheels. The smith has the usual implements - an anvil, a rather heavy sledge, a lighter sledge, shoeing hammer,drill for boring holes in iron, large pincers, punches, rasps, soldering iron, a vice, trough of water for cooling hot irons, horse shoe nails, chisels of various sizes etc. He make shoes for horses, ponies and donkeys, but cattle were never shod in the district. He makes field gates and smaller ornamented gates such as wicket gates, iron railings, and very rarely an iron harrow. He repairs all farm implements, but does not make ploughs, spades, shovels, pikes and etc. Cart wheels are banded in the open on a circular concrete slab. The smith also does some soldering, especially to creamery cans belonging to the milk suppliers of the nearby.
The forge is not so much a centre for story-telling now-a-days(continues on next page)
