Bill Pankhurst, blacksmith

The Arts and Crafts movement found in Oakridge an environment sympathetic to their creativity and work.

That same environment continued and continues to attract both locals and others who have settled here to craft beautiful objects.

In Oakridge Lynch today the tradition of high qualty Craft Blacksmithing continues with William Pankhurst and his Forge at Woodbine Cottage (Tel 01285 760236).

Photographs L - R, T - B, Bill, at work in his Forge, Woodbine Cottage, his Mother and examples of his wonderful craftsmanship.

Bill's mother's family have lived in Oakridge for over a century. Bill went to school in Oakridge. He served an apprenticeship in Daglingworth with John McCormick and he remembers that they were making Arts-and-Crafts style pieces such as door furniture and hinges before it was seen as anything remarkable. He then set up his own forge twenty-seven years ago in the gar­den of the cottage in Oakridge. Here he works using traditional forged ironwork methods and often traditional designs.

Bill has a reputation for individual gates. working to customers' own designs or adapting designs from old catalogues, as well as making practical items such as curtain rods, trivets. security grilles, windows and window stays, rails, balustrades and fireside furniture. He likes working on unusual or special orders, such as for weathervanes, chandeliers, garden arches. outdoor chairs, lamps, thatching hooks and the commissions for crosses which he has made specially for the chapel and the school in Oakridge.

Gloucestershire churches and English Heritage have placed orders for Bills work. Many of the decorative details, such as the punched cross, that embellish Bill's work are readily recognisable as continuing the tra­dition started by Gimson.

A founder member of the Stroud Valleys Craftsmen, set up in 1995, Bill believes in pro­moting the work of local craftsmen and keep­ing alive the Arts and Crafts tradition in the area. He exhibits at local shows and exhibi­tions, showing beaten copper work as well as his range of practical forged iron utensils. He is proud of his planished copper bowls, plates, chestnut roasters and candle sconces but says that, while it is enjoyable to create items like his copper and steel roses and the planes created from Second World War 303 shells, the time it takes really makes them a luxury rather than an economic proposition.

Asked about the advantages and disadvan­tages of working in a small rural community, Bill reflects: 'Though you don't get passing trade,' he says, 'I like the quietness here. I feel I can con­centrate and produce quality work.' He stands in the continuing tradition of craftsmen for whom quality rather than quantity is a keystone.

The above is an extract from 'Oakridge a History' by Pat Carrick, Kay Rhodes and Juliet Shipman, available from Oakridge History Group, price £15 through the ‘Contact Us’ page or from the Oakridge Village Shop.