hi all,
thought I might add a little story on my family of blacksmiths that might answer a couple of questions.
Five brothers, all blacksmiths, left Kildwick Yorkshire in the 1850's to come to Australia. Probably because their were too many blacksmiths in the town.
Their father and his father were also blacksmiths.
They settled, first, in an outback town called Deniliquin, NSW.
In 1859, Joseph Simpson was accused of setting fire to a hay shed owned by a John Taylor. John Taylor had owned the local hotel and had set up a blacksmith shop in opposition to Joseph Simpson. A statement made in the newspaper goes as follows: "There's no b----- mistake, I've got a down on Taylor, and I wish he had been in the midst of the b----- flames. What does a man want to carry on a butcher's and a blacksmith's shop? Let him stick to his pulic-house".
They had a price war going on, very similar to petrol price wars of today. The newspaper article discusses the price of shoeing, so this blacksmith was obviously into the horse shoeing business. "Simpson used to charge one pound for shoeing" after the price war it was 10 shilling for saddle horse and 12 shilling for draught horse.
Adverts show that he was also a wheelright.
The case was based soley on a boot found at the fire, and fortunately for my ancestor he was finally acquitted.
The brothers scattered themselves in nearby towns, and eventually their sons took over the business. Joseph later opened up a hotel ( I guess to be in opposition to his friend 'Taylor')
hope you found this interesting as well as helpful,
Margaret
