Forge Themes

We have 3 themes, expressed as follows:

1) Blacksmithing – The Forge has maintained its connection with Blacksmithing and still mends the garden fork but also takes on commissions. Probably the most notable was the church gates for Cowbit. Tasters - Its estimated that over 1500 young people have made coat hooks and we conduct half and full day tasters which brings in income to the Forge. Recently we added a Blacksmith Club which offers a supportive environment for local people to experience Blacksmithing

2) Local History -Through our website www.heritagesothholland.co.uk and social media we offer the community and visitor a view into our past. The website has more than 15,000 artefacts including photographs, documents, oral histories and is hosted on our website, We average nearly  200 views per day. 

3) Innovation - Giving the community access to 3D printing, scanning and Virtual Reality. This provides a contrast to the tradition of Blacksmithing and attract new audiences. The following are highlights from this work.

Our first project saw us working with Dr John Murray of the University of Lincoln (now Professor John Murray of Hull University and head of Computer Sciences) and we created a Virtual Reality Blacksmith and its output was sent to a 3D Printer. This beautifully demonstrates how virtual design and manufacture could be achieved. BBC clip about the project- https://www.heritagesouthholland.co.uk/2017/05/new-project-announced-university-lincoln/

Secondly, we had an Arts Council project called Pump, Grind and Smith. The project created art installations at 3 sites and during the process we used virtual reality to design and show the installation in situ. See clip https://www.heritagesouthholland.co.uk/2018/08/using-virtual-reality-to-create-art/

Today we are working on a new way to display our local churches which are the treasures of South Holland’s heritage. This employs 360-degree cameras and a technique called photogrammetry which uses a drone to photograph multiple images and compile them into a 3D Model. This model can then be 3D printed. Example https://www.heritagesouthholland.co.uk/2019/09/tour-of-st-margrets-quadring/

Today the Arts Council have funded us to work with a digital artist using off the shelf apps to develop a portfolio of digital art and create a video to show how it was created. The hope is we will be able to create street art which is viewable using smartphone. We will publicise the location of this art and we hope young people will go out and investigate with their phones and give us some feedback. We