Making Chains

This week I met the second group I’m going to be working with on the project. The group of young people get together to make the Voice 21 magazine.
We were lucky enough to be shown around Mushroon Green Forge and Solid Swivel by Luke Perry, local industrial artist and metal worker. He was also one of the Experts on the Channel 4 series Titanic.

We arrived at Mushroom Green where Luke gave a demonstration of traditional chain making...
The group were initially a little reluctant to take part, but eventually a few of us has a go at making our own chain link. Luke told us about the conditions that people would have worked in throughout the demonstration. I found it hard work but a little satisfying to have my own hand made link.

Luke then walked us to Solid Swivel, his family’s chain making factory. Solid Swivel is the only factory that makes chain in the whole of Europe. After a cup of tea we were taken around the factory and shown some of the ancient machines that are still in use. The machines are so old that they sometimes have to order spare parts from museums!

This was a really good insight into how the metal bashing industry works and it was amazing to hear that a lot of the techniques used are the same as years ago.
After our tour Luke made us lunch the ‘old fashioned way’. Workers would put their lunch on a shovel and cook it in the forge. This week Luke demonstrated how you can make cheese on toast and bacon butties using large pieces of metal that have been heated up in the forge. It was a very unique way to cook a bacon butty, though it did taste a bit metallic!

Thanks to luke for a great day!