These are the bellows which were once used by David Caswell, at Badsey forge. They are over 100 years old, and came from Bretforton before arriving in Badsey in the early 1900’s.

Rachel, David’s daughter, gave myself, my father and Stephen at Reddog forge the honour of moving the bellows to the Almonry museum in Evesham. There it will be restored by the three of us, and eventually I will have the privilege of using them to demonstrate to the museum visitors!

The day itself was Sunday 29th September 2019. We all met at the forge and began to analyse and discuss between ourselves how to dismantle and lower the bellows. My father, Justin, is a tree surgeon, and had all of his climbing ropes with him to help us with this move. We eventually had the ropes fitted, and started cutting the supports away from the roof. Once freed, it was lowered to the bench and had a thick layer of dust brushed off. We placed it in Stephen’s van and delivered it to the Almonry, where it is being stored until a suitable time to restore it.