Dalesbred

Had a lovely breakfast at the (Bolton) Abbey Tea Rooms with my mum this morning before setting off back home. It is also known as the Old Forge Cafe in homage to the blacksmiths forge based here for years. I took a picture of the old smithy door on leaving as I have visited here a lot over the years, but always wondered what the (presumed) branding iron marks on the door were all about. I only spotted my mums curious fingers creeping into the shot after posting.

I checked its history out after online and it seems that “as with other smithies, the door bore hundreds of brand marks - ‘proofs’ of horn-burns the blacksmith had made in metal for marking sheep”. So there you have it.

I actually have a lovely memoir written by Donald Wood who worked this same smithy for many years titled ‘Bolton Abbey The Time of my Life’. Working for the Duke of Devonshire estate of Bolton Abbey he moved into a beautiful riverside cottage nearby that is right by the Wharfe and Bolton bridge.

He arrived in 1919 and went on to live there for 77 years. His old house remains my dream home to this day - as I could litterally cast a trout-fly out of a window.