"but there were more smiths and cutlers, in early times in Handsworth than in Sheffield"

[RichardB]

My scythe and hammer lies reclin’d

My bellows too have lost their wind

My iron is spent, my steel is gone

My scythes are set, my work is done

My fires extinct, my forge decay’d

My body in the dust is laid

I came across the above verse, written in my Father’s handwriting, on a slip of paper which he had used as a bookmark, in a book titled “Sheffield Its Story and its Achievements” by Mary Walton. This book was one of several passed down to me on his death in 1968. He had also written on the piece of paper “Epitaph, Believed to be in Norton Churchyard”. Norton Church is less than three miles from Ridgeway.

http://www.ridgeway-village.org.uk/a_histo...oenix_works.htm

[RichardB]

Memories of the Phoenix Works

Extract :

During my childhood I was taken several times by my Father to spend the day at the Phoenix Works and despite the passage of many years, some of the more impressionable activities are still clear memories and it is these which are described below.

http://www.ridgeway-village.org.uk/Memorie...oenix_works.htm