August 5, 2022 6.00 pm This story is over 18 months old

Eco-friendly blacksmith forge’s plans for fuel shortage

It will preserve the blacksmith craft for the future

A blacksmith’s forge is looking to build a solar-powered workshop to deal with fuel shortages.

The owners of the Chain Bridge Forge in Spalding say their suppliers are facing “severe restrictions”.

The new blacksmith’s workshop would be built from recycled shipping containers, and would be clad to look like a nearby historic building.

Solar panels would be used to power the forge, and decking would be added alongside the current one to allow outdoor working.

The Chain Bridge Forge is a museum and working forge on the High Street which has been in use since the late 1700s.

The planning application says: “The ability to buy and burn fossil fuel will become severely restricted. Suppliers are already contacting us indicating severe restrictions and the possibility of no mines being available in the UK.

“Suppliers are indicating that this may mean the fuel needs to be imported from Russia.”

The solar-powered forge would be built next to the historic one on Spalding high street | Photo: Google

It says the project will “deliver sustainability to the forge, ensuring that if fossil fuels become unattainable. then we will still be able to preserve the blacksmith craft and offer services to customers.”

The design will be styled on the Birches Black Granary, which sat a short distance down the river bank until the 1960s.

The new forge would be a similar size to the existing building.

The Dodd family who managed the forge for generations sold it to South Holland District Council in 1989 as the trade declined.

It is now run by the Friends of the Chain Bridge Forge as a living museum in order to conserve the building and craft.

The forge offers blacksmith taster sessions, and takes bespoke commissions.