The Village Blacksmith: tyring wheels

Soutergate blacksmith John Coward produces an iron tyre and fixes it to a wooden cart wheel with the help of colleagues. After the circumference of a wheel is measured, a tyre is welded in the blacksmith's shop. Tyres, wheels and peat are taken down to a tyring platform near a local beck. Coward and his assistants build a fire around a stack of iron tyres, whilst a wheel is attached to the tyring platform. A hot tyre is lifted, dropped and fitted onto the wheel, and water from the beck is used to cool and contract the iron to the rim. A second tyre is fitted as the narrator, Sam Hanna, reflects on his film-making.