13. The Horseshoe

Last night Norm and I shared a meal with my 2nd cousin and her husband. But it wasn’t just sharing a meal which was important - it was also to hand over a horseshoe our g.g.grandfather had made back in the late 1800s. He was a blacksmith (and farrier) in a country SA town after emigrating from Somerset in 1857 with his new bride. Norm and I visited his blacksmith’s ‘shop’ in Auburn many years ago and were given a horseshoe with the promise of more to follow, when the current owner of his shop cleaned the backyard up of decades of piled high rubbish, old building materials, rocks and other accumulated junk but alas that never eventuated. I promised Sue at the time I would bring her the horseshoe if we ever returned to the UK. Last night that promise was fulfilled. By the way, when we visited Auburn, his forge was still there, along with all his tools of trade. 

When he retired, his ‘shop’ became a showroom for early automobiles but the ring to which the horses would be tied still remains to this day and is featured as a ‘tourist attraction’ in local tourist brochures.

AND, I hear you ask, how come my 2nd cousin is living in the UK when our g.g.grandfather had emigrated back in 1857? Well!!!! Sue’s grandmother had stowed away to England in the 1920s and she stayed, having made her home here (and that’s the shortest version of a very long story I’ve ever told). 

If you’re interested then Google “stowaway Jeanne Day” and several articles will pop up.