June 2019 Picture of the Month

Another image from our February trip to Devon – this time showing artist blacksmith Andrew Kemp forging an ornamental poker for my son's new house. Andrew works part of each week in the National Trust's Finch Foundry, a beautifully preserved and rare example of an early 19th century water-powered village foundry in Sticklepath near Oakhampton. The Foundry still contains all its original – and primitive – machinery, restored to working order by volunteers from North Dartmoor Museums and the National Trust. The site has been used for industrial purposes since at least mediaeval times, having been a fulling mill, a woollen mill and a corn mill before coming into the hands of the Finch family around 1820. It closed in 1960 after a major structural collapse brought on by the relentless thumping of the water-powered hammers.