17: The Smithy

Ulbølle smedie i Den Fynske Landsby.

Intro

Ulbølle Smithy (17) is a representative for rural crafts, of which the blacksmith was one of the most important. The smithy is fitted out with original equipment ant it is still in use today. Many of The Funen Village's building fittings are made here.

The smithy is a four by four bay, timber-framed building. Due to the fire risk, it has a tiled roof. There is a lean-to so the blacksmith can work outside. The smith has his workshop on the ground floor and a chamber for the journeyman smith on the first floor. This was how the smithy was fitted out and used until shortly before it was moved to The Funen Village. The blacksmith himself lived in the house, where there was also a byre for a cow.

Originally, the smith was not paid for each individual piece of work, but received instead a fixed annual payment in kind. When people wanted a fitting, a horseshoe or some other item made, it was not unusual for them to bring both the iron and food for the smith. Ulbølle Smithy was built in 1849 as the third in the parish by journeyman smith Johannes Frandsen. There was a great demand for smiths to take care of the many new implements which agriculture had begun to make use of. Despite this demand, Ulbølle Smithy's first owner did not make a success of the business. In 1854, he was forced to sell both house and smithy. The third and final blacksmith at Ulbølle Smithy was Mads Søren Madsen, whose son sold the smithy to The Funen Village in 1948.