Lower Swell Forge

A Memory of Lower Swell.

I first came to Lower Swell as a 16 year old boy; that would have been 1967. I had attended Wilsons Grammar School in Camberwell London. Austen Nichols had worked at the school teaching metal work. He told me that he lived in Lower Swell and had a forge there. He and I got on really well. He was a good teacher and became a good friend. When he left Wilsons he invited me to visit him and that summer I did. I had family friends not far away and combined my visit to him with a short stay in nearby Malmesbury.
Austen showed me the forge and his beautiful little cottage. I stayed for most of the day and before leaving promised to visit again.
To my eternal sorrow I didn't actually visit him again until about 1986. I had driven by over the years but felt I'd left it too long to rekindle our friendship. Now, however I was married and had a son and a daughter I wanted him to meet.
I plucked up the courage and walked through the gate leading to the forge. My son Tom was with me and I could see Austen working on an anvil outside the forge, talking to an old chap whose name I think was Sid.
Anyway, as I approached Austen looked up and I told him who I was. His immediate response was: "I was just talking to Sid about you".
It was great to find Austen as I'd left him. I went a couple more times to see him before we returned home that year. This time I kept my promise and the following year we returned. We stayed up the road at Stow-on-the-Wold for about a week. I worked in the forge with Austen making, amongst other things, a fine pair of wrought iron lanterns for outside my house. I still have them to this day although I've moved many times since then.
I visited pretty well every year after that and there were phone calls and letters.
Sadly, over the years Austen's health declined, but before that he came up to Hastings and stayed with us on the occasion of my 40th birthday. I can remember him playing the grand piano, he was an accomplished player, at the party we had in a local hotel.
We continued to keep in touch but it got a bit irregular and his healthe deteriorated and although we spoke on the phone I didn't see him for a few years before he died.
I shall never forget my visits to the forge at lower swell. I went back 3 years ago, long after he died. The little cottage (travellers joy) was still there of course and the forge although both seemed empty, the latter clearly no longer operated as such.
I had lunch in the Golden Ball, as I had done so many times before with Austen. I expect I'll be down again one day.