We had to catch a plane home, so it was a short day, not to mention its also being a very wet one. But we found time to make a quick visit to Patterson's Spade Mill, which wasn't far from where our friends live.
I had never even heard of a spade mill before visiting Northern Ireland, and I suppose I never gave much thought to how spades were made before mechanisation. Well, they were made by hand, being beaten out by a blacksmith into a spade shape from a rough rectangle of iron called a billet. I also had no idea whatever how many different spade shapes there were.
These are only a few examples; you would be surprised by the number of different types of spades there are. It would appear nearly every region in Ireland had their own type of spade, depending on the terrain. There are different shaped spades for stony ground, spades for clay, spades for digging turf and even in this category there are different types - there are turf spades for digging the turf out vertically and others for digging it out horizontally.
After the tour we asked how much one of their hand made spades would cost if we wanted one, and learned that the price is £80.00. Although this might sound expensive, the staff at the Mill actually worked out that the real cost of making one was £200. This takes into account the price of the materials and the man hours. Obviously they realised no one would pay this, so they are sold for £80.
Making the spade is very labour intensive. This is the chunk of metal that the blacksmith starts with. It will be beaten first on the anvil.
It has to be doubled over, so there are two layers. The layers are kept apart in the middle, at the top, by inserting a few cinders there; this is to form a channel that the handle can be fitted into.
Later, when the lump of iron has been beaten a bit on the anvil and is a bit flatter, it is beaten into a spade shape by the water-powered hammer. I did take some pictures of this process, but unfortunately they were too dark to see anything. It is a long and laborious process, and the big water-driven hammer is held in check, when not beating, by a huge chunk of wood. The chunk of wood is knocked out when the hammer is to be used, and jammed back in again to stop the hammer pounding.
The spade handle is made from a pole, which is sharpened rather like a pencil on the machine below so that it will fit into a channel in the spade; then it is riveted into position.
After we had seen everything and asked numerous questions, we were taken outside to look at the mill race.
This originally used to drive a waterwheel, but this was changed to a very early turbine, which has been refurbished and is still in use.
Once we had seen everything, it was time to go back and get ready to catch our plane back home.
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