GNJC Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 I've purchased an old smith's ledger covering from April 1905 to September 1906. It has no owner's name in it or location, however I have done a location search for the clients' names (e.g. Madgwick & Pickard) and there is about a 90% chance it is from Yorkshire and about a 10% chance it is from Devon. It has entries for all sorts of work, as you'ld expect for a rural smith, but it's the prices as well as the variety of work that I find interesting e.g.: four shoes two shillings & 8 pence; shovel repair 6 pence; barrow wheel 4 shillings; new end to chisel 2 pence; repair candlestick & poker 1 shilling. Four shoes for named horses are typically 3 shillings (preumably because the named horses were bigger working beasts). At the back of the book are some entries for 1937, by then four shoes were 7 shillings - inflation! If anyone out there is researching such information I'll be happy to supply pic's of the pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 I'm always interested to see the scope and income of our smithing predecessors! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Blythin Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 I'd be very interested in seeing a couple of pages worth of entries, if sending / posting some scans or photos wouldn't be too inconvenient. I've been researching my family tree, and know that there were a number of smiths in my family during that period (and earlier), working in rural North Wales (Flintshire). I'd assume the types of work would be the same in all rural areas at the time. Cheers, Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GNJC Posted February 21, 2013 Author Share Posted February 21, 2013 Here are the entries for May 1905. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 I wouldn't make that assumption! Local areas had local items---not much call for slate mining tools in Yorkshire but it might be a big item in parts of Wales. Different crops grown, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 Yorkshiremans ledger, sounds like the punchline to a penny pinching joke. (No offence JohnB) Very interesting though Giles. An unusual purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew2riches Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 It looks a good bit of history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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