4 Chapel Street and the Forge
In the censuses from 1841 to 1871 the house was occupied by the Bishop family who were farmers. In 1881 it was the home of George and Elizabeth Higgins, market gardeners. It was owned by William Byrd, who overstretched himself financially and filed for bankruptcy. As a result his creditors pressed for liquidation, resulting in the sale of the property in 1890 to William Jinks. For the next 20 years it was occupied by the Jinks family.
By 1911, one of the best-known families in Badsey had moved in, the Caswells, with the arrival of Frank Caswell, a blacksmith from Stretton in Warwickshire, and his wife Charlotte. Frank opened the business on 14th February 1909. Just over a month later their son Richard Henry (Dick) was born. After leaving school, Dick became apprenticed to his father.
In turn, David, Dick’s son, joined the family business in 1955. He also undertook an apprenticeship course at Hereford College and became a skilled metal work and agricultural engineer and a qualified gas and electric welder. Unlike his father and grandfather before him, the farrier’s work made up only half of his business. In retirement, it was David’s skills as a raconteur that were uppermost, and people travelled from far and wide to view the forge which had changed very little since his grandfather’s day. Outside of a museum, you would be hard pushed to find a traditional smithy such as the one in Badsey.
David died on 11th March 2019, and although the forge is no longer active, the house is now lived in by one of his four daughters.
