I was in France back in the summer. Visited a town called Oradour Sur Glane, it's a sad place, i suggest you look it up some time.

Anyways, as i walked around the place i went past one of the burnt out forges. Not much remains of it, but the anvil is still sitting where it was abandoned in June 1944.

Here are the only pics i got of it:




I say it's sat where it was abandoned, but i suspect it was on a wooden stand at the time and it's been put on the concrete block after the fire.

It amazes me how good the face seems considering that it was in an intense fire and then out in the weather for 68 years.

So cool! Thanks for sharing. Ive never seen a vice like that either.

Yeah i wondered if the vice could be built into a wall, or that it has those long arms so that the fixed jaw can be moved towards the rear for larger work?

My guess is that the rear jaw could slide backwards for larger work. Nice vise design.

To me the anvil looks as if it is waiting for the smith to return.

Why didn't you take it?

Why didn't you take it?

The whole town is now a war memorial. I didn't fancy being lynched by an angry French mob ;)

Coupla hundred died there, if memory serves.

I think the anvil is where it was meant to be. The whole setup appears like the anvil was the anvil for a power hammer of some type, and just to the other side you see a pile of iron that appears to be the remains of the forge. When it all collapsed, all you have left is a pile of tongs that were hanging around the edges.

Google it: The Germans thought a different town had kidnapped an officer; so confused by similar names they rounded up everyone in Oradour Sur Glane and killed them: men, women and children burned alive or shot trying to escape the flames.

Most of the responsible soldiers later died in battle; a few were prosecuted after the war.

It is a monument to the atrocities of the war. I wouldn't touch that anvil if you soldered good bricks to it!