There's a few about, does it have to specifically be that one?Count Steer wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 10:08 am I've got a challenge for anyone near Nettlebed*, St Bartholemew's churchyard.
Somewhere in it there's a gravestone of blacksmith William Strange with an inscription that starts -
'My sledge and anvil lie declined, my bellows too have lost their wind; my fire's extinct, my forge decay'd'
It's quite famous in the sense that the verse is in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and I'd like an image of it. Can I find one? Nope, this Interweb thing is just rubbish, I thought everything was supposed to be on it.
So, if you happen to be passing......
Prize is you get to be king/queen of the Internet for a week.
* Henley sort of area.
A few from a quick look:
Epitaph memorial to a blacksmith at the yard of Lloyd, stonemasons, in the Wiltshire village of Great Bedwyn, England, UK
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-epita ... 11635.html
ALEXANDER SHEARMAN’S STONE
He was the Village Blacksmith
To be more specific, John was laid to rest at St Mary’s Church, which is the oldest building in Cheltenham, dating from the mid 11th century. Much of the churchyard was cleared in the 1950s (a frequent and heart-breaking history for many burial grounds), so only around 50 headstones survive to this day. According to the Friends of St Mary’s, two other curious epitaphs were sadly lost during this period of clearance:
John Paine, Blacksmith, died 1796
My sledge and hammer lies inclined,
My bellows pipe have lost its wind,
My fire’s extinct, my forge decayed,
And in the dust my vice is layed,
My coal is spent, my iron’s gone,
My nails are drove, my work is done.
https://burialsandbeyond.com/2022/12/12 ... ig-killer/
). I feel like that would be cheating though 
