Cold Hanworth. The location of Lincolnshire blacksmith Bob Oakes’s forge... and, oh my word, was it cold during our visit, at least before the forge began to warm up!

Snow lay on the ground during early February, and the temperature gauge in my car plummeted to -2°c and I cursed leaving my winter coat behind as I?trickled across icy back lanes towards the aptly named Cold Hanworth Forge.

Fortunately, Bob already had the kettle on, in advance of the arrival of the six students who were visiting the forge for the first day of a long weekend beginners course to learn the fundamentals of blacksmithing.

The idyllic 17th century forge is a former farm, but has been a blacksmiths for as long as anyone in the village can remember. We crept up the backstairs to the former hayloft where I wrapped my hands around a mug of hot, sweet, milky tea and Bob began his story.

“I was adopted after the war.” he began. “I discovered my real mother later in life after my career as a blacksmith had begun, and upon meeting up with my mother discovered that my great grandfather was a blacksmith too.

My mother and I visited the village of Burghley, in the New Forest, and rediscovered his forge in what’s now an arts and crafts gallery.”

As such, Bob’s autobiography will be published this month under his birth name, Frederick John Pope.  It will detail how Bob was born and raised in Ilkeston in Derbyshire and studied in Cheltenham before embarking upon a teaching career in Nottingham, at the Elle Guilford School, for three years.

It was at an International Conference for Blacksmiths at Herford College in 1980 that Bob realised that the old role of the village blacksmith had disappeared in favour of modern commercial fabricators and farrier with portable forges on which to fabricate shoes.

Architectural blacksmithing seemed the way forward and Bob began a career as an artisan blacksmith apprenticed to Frank Bottomly in 1982 before moving to Hackthorn three years or so later so he could work from a forge of his own.

At the time, Bob was also demonstrating with a small portable forge at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life, and upon getting lost on the back roads one foggy evening, came across the house of Reg Johnson, himself an artisan blacksmith and one with whom Bob formed a long-standing working relationship.

Bob moved to his current forge in 2001 which was substantially larger and would allow him to run courses - a life long ambition.

Pausing in his recollection of events, the forge door snapped open and we greeted the first student, then another and another until all six had arrived. Bob invites up to eight students at a time to regular beginners’ courses, during which each will learn the basic techniques necessary to create a hanging basket bracket over the course of three days. The courses cost £290 and include three days of tuition, materials, meals at the forge’s favourite local restaurant, The Falconer, and kiln coke.

Visitors travel from as far as the US, Australia & New Zealand, and Europe to learn the craft from Bob, and no previous experience is necessary... our visit’s students had never used a forge before and by the time we left, were busily hammering besides a hot forge, well on their way to making their masterpieces.

By the time they leave the forge, the students will have learned to use the forge to bend and hammer hot metal, fireweld, create leaves and complete hot metal twisting, as well as learning how to copy an existing design exactly to ensure their skills are tempered with control and discipline.

"As a forge, we specialise in architectural blacksmithing." says Bob. Utilitarian blacksmiths have all but disappeared... which means the craft has become much more specialised."

Crucially, Bob's forge specialises in garden sculpture, bespoke artistic forgework and the restoration and conservation of historical and period ironwork. The firm's apprentice, Ryan Atkin, is extremely adept at producing artistic pieces. Rather, Bob and his stepson Nick Hill specialise in restoring period ironwork, particularly architectural works.

The forge’s work can be seen at Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian private estates, such as Lincoln’s Harmston Hall, at Louth’s Holy Trinity Church, around Skellingthorpe Church, at Sudbrooke Park Gates, and around Nottingham’s Lacemarket, a restoration project for which the forge won a Nottingham Civic Society award. Commissions like restoration projects may take from two weeks to six months to complete, with both Bob and Nick master craftsmen.

"Nick is one of the UK's best architectural blacksmiths." says Bob. "So business is fairly good for us, however the trade has diminished in size compared to the time when there would be a smithy in every village. I'm saddened... really saddened... when I see ironwork in need of restoration being given to fabricators with no knowledge of traditional techniques."

After an extensive health and safety briefing during which Bob points out the potential perils of working with red hot metal and the six forges which each burn to 1,200°c, the students began working on a rudimentary heating and hammering exercise. By mid-morning, the group had broken from their work for part two of their instruction, involving splitting and curling metal to form the back plate of their hanging basket brackets.

Bob’s autobiography is partly a biography of his own life, partly a book about Lincolnshire village life, and partly a book which reminds us how important independent craftspeople and independent traders are to Lincolnshire.

“The book is about 56,000 words, and begins with talking about my life as a 10 year old child peering through the forge’s window.” says Bob. “‘My nose was almost frozen to the murky windowpane as I tried to catch a glimpse of the swarthy figure wearing a frayed leather apron hammering away on the anvil...’ Well now I’m the tutor, and I love it.”

His enthusiasm is obvious and infectious... so it’s no wonder his students were having the time of their lives when I left the forge amid the slushy melting show. Perhaps it was the heat from the forges, but somehow, my heart had been warmed a little too.