THOMAS HARTLEY - HISTORICAL BATHURST

A few days ago Jon Pieters approached me with a bit of a challenge: To photograph the brackets, bolts and nuts that Thomas Hartley forged for the St.John’s Anglican Church rafters in 1834. These pictures are now displayed at the Singing Anvil in the Hobson and Co Smithy, Bathurst Agricultural Museum, along with a framed photograph of a very old moth-eaten photograph Thomas Hartley which I captured and spent a bit of time working on in Lightroom to get rid of as many of the raggedy bits as possible. Jon then took a few of these shots along to Amy Muir at the Workshop where she very kindly framed them for the Smithy free of charge. Jon has spent the best part of 15 years or so working on - and in - the Singing Anvil to ensure that this tradition survives as the art form which it undoubtedly is, and which today constitutes one of the most important elements of the Bathurst Agricultural Museum.

Herewith Some history provided by Jon on the East Cape Blacksmiths' facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1659733947626807/): 

In 1820 a young man by the name of Thomas Hartley came to South Africa with the British settlers. He opened a blacksmith shop on the premises where the Pig and Whistle Inn in Bathurst is now situated. The ‘built up’ original door and windows are still visible on the west outer wall of the building.

He also extracted teeth at the smithy.

When the longest yellow wood rafters in South Africa had to be installed in the St John's Anglican Church, Thomas Hartley forged the brackets, bolts and nuts for the assembling of the trusses.

Each bolt and nut had to be hand forged and are not universal as a nut will only fit on the bolt made for it.

As iron was not readily available in the colony at that time, iron billets were imported from England and the smith had to draw the metal out to the sizes needed for the specific purposes for which they were intended. Wagon tyre iron came in various thicknesses, widths and lengths, and this was also used in general forgings other than wagon wheel manufacturing.

Some photos of the brackets and the Church door handle that he made in 1834.

MUSSELS

At the end of this month it will be exactly 18 months since we moved to Bathurst from Cape Town.  Those of you who knew us in Cape Town will recall that barely a Spring Tide ever went by without me tootling down to Scarborough to pick mussels at low tide……………along with a fair number of limpets, which, ground down, have a very similar taste to Perlemoen (Abalone), and blended with chopped potato form a really great base for Boulliabaise, a dish I really love to do.  Well, it has been around 19 months since I last went mussel picking, but Sunday last’s Spring tide had me up all excited and off early to Kenton on Sea to remedy the situation. At middle beach I surprisingly had the rocks all to myself and spent a good twenty minutes fighting this new brown shelled species off of their chosen locations. Picking at Scarborough is definitely a whole lot easier …………. these guys here in the Eastern Cape simply don’t want to let go and you literally have to fight each and every one off its flat, peat-like, feeding bed ……….. also not a single limpet in sight. No bodder as Liam Kennedy likes to say ………. it was a very pleasant little interlude which will definitely be repeated again - and again - and again and ……………..That evening we had Jon and Yvonne and Tom and Alison around for a braai, and gave them all a few mussels in white wine with fresh mixed herbs as a starter which I think they all enjoyed ………. I know I did! All we have to do now is find a place close by where we can dig white mussels (clams), like we used to at the crayfish factory beach alongside Misty Cliffs all those years ago ………… a decent chowder would then be utterly complete.

Sunday's pickings at Kenton on Sea

Since I was twelve years old I have dreamt of visiting Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef, and some 61 years later have still not managed to get there. Jealousy is a damnable emotion, but really ………… what is one supposed to feel when one’s second son - Stoddard - calmly drops into our weekly telephone conversation that towards the end of this month, he, Nols and the kids are flying up to the Whitsunday Islands from Sydney to spend 9 or 10 days cruising with his old Hobie buddies Barry and Kim Boswell and their kids on Barry’s 45’ cruising catamaran. 

Not much I can really say, other than “Shit - you lucky, lucky buggers …………….. Enjoy! - and please send plenty of pics so that we can really get this emotion right up to the level it deserves.”

That’s it …………… not much else to be said at this point in time - I need to quietly retire somewhere to sulk in silence and get over all of this. Enjoy your next week or two.