My favourite bits from the day were the magnificent metal working workshops and forges. Dark by necessity so that the temperature of the steel could be accurately determined by eye and experience, they are notoriously problematic for film photography. Without a tripod I made do with whatever rests I could to handle the long exposure times, gates, door frames. Whatever.
The huge bellows forcing the air for a half dozen forges, the flaggon for the ale, It is hot and thirsty work and evocative. The steel that these men forged through sheer strength and bucket fulls of sweat is still in existence in every corner of the world.
Another from Avoncroft and even better another metal working shop.
This scene was almost totally in the dark, very dim indeed on that side of the workshop, I could just make out some things hanging on the wall barely lit by the glimmers of light streaming through the boarded up windows at the back, again its a prerequisite for the forge work to be carried out in darkness. But what interested me was the tooling that was faintly outlined on the wall, I knew that they were tongs of some description as I have some myself. What fascinates me with blacksmiths is the idea of a Craftsman, a craftsman is master of the working tools of his trade but a Master Craftsman, like all blacksmiths by necessity, can and does make his own tools, each fit for purpose and often may only be used for one particular operation in the forming of the sparkling yellow hot metal.
I rested the Bronica, loaded with FP4+ on the door frame, it was kind of a split stable type door, metered on the darkest corner of the room and exposed for about a second wide open. Developed in 510 pyro. The framing was not up to much because I could barley see so slight crop and set black and white points.
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