Greenwood Blacksmith Shop
c.1847
Miss Edna Green donated this building. Her family owned and operated the Greenwood Mills. Built about 1847, it stood at the centre of the Hamlet of Greenwood (across from our Odd Fellows Hall). It served the community and the mill as a blacksmith and wagon-making business.
The hemlock floor, known for its fire retardant properties, is original to this building. The mechanical rotary blower, patented in 1901, replaced the old leather double-chambered bellows. The key to creating a fire of enough heat for forging iron was the air blast produced by the bellows or blower. It was often the job of the apprentice to work the bellows or blower.
19th Century Trades and Apprenticeships
Young men learned most 19th century trades through an apprenticeship process. A boy was apprenticed at about the age of 14 to a master who also assumed the role of parent. The master provided room and board. He was also responsible for teaching the apprentice reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Courtesy of the Pickering Public Library
Depending on the trade, the apprentice would learn and assist the master for three to five years. In this way, the trades passed from generation to generation. Six apprentices appear in the 1851 census for Pickering Township. They included two blacksmiths, and one each shoemaker, tailor, wheelwright, and carpenter.
Greenwood Blacksmith Shop c.1945. Courtesy of the Pickering Public Library
Did you know?
In the Greenwood Blacksmith Shop is where sculptor Bill Lishman got his start. Besides being an artist, Lishman was also an inventor, pioneer ultralight pilot, author and public speaker, naturalist, filmmaker, and an entrepreneur and creative genius.
As a sculptor, he was known for his life-size, and larger than life, steel horses. He created many public installations. He created an 86-foot (26 m) high central theme sculpture for Expo ’86 in Vancouver. Also notable is a 13-metre tall Iceburg sculpture for the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. Lishman is best known as “Father Goose” a name given to him for leading Canada Geese on migration. Hollywood commemorated this achievement in the film “Fly Away Home” (1996).
