'I'm 21 and proud to be a blacksmith'

A 21-year-old who became a blacksmith a year and a half ago has said he is "proud" to be part of the profession.

Jay Cardall joined Mather of Tibshelf, a blacksmiths based in Derbyshire, in April 2024, after completing a qualification in joinery.

The business - based in a smithy that dates back to the 1600s - takes on a variety of jobs, from work at stately homes such as Kedleston Hall to fixing broken mobility scooters for people in the area.

"It is an amazing job and it's one of them where you're doing something different every day. There's never two days of the same, never," Mr Cardall said.

Mr Cardall, from Morton, said before becoming a blacksmith he did an apprenticeship in joinery, however he became bored of the trade as he found it "repetitive".

As his qualification started to come to an end, he messaged Stephen Beckett, the director of Mather of Tibshelf, about potentially starting work at the business.

He said he was attracted to the blacksmithing trade due to the "rarity" of the job and the opportunity to do "something different".

Mr Cardall was accepted into the family business and initially started by getting used to the basics of the trade.

A year and a half down the line, he has been involved in a number of projects, ranging from making bottle openers to working on gates at Repton Prep School, which he described as the "most impressive" job he had been a part of so far.

He explained this was due to the "scale of the job" and the detail that went into the design.

"Everything just seemed to work out perfectly in a way where everything went how we wanted it to go," he added.

According to national charity Heritage Craft, there are fewer than 500 trainees looking to take up the profession.

Mr Cardall said: "A young person in blacksmithing is very rarely heard, so it's weird calling myself a blacksmith but it's also a very proud thing because it is a unique job."

He added a lot of people his age work in factories, pubs or in fast-food restaurants, but said those jobs did not strike him as "fun".

"I need to get my hands dirty - I've always been that type of person where if I'm not working and if I'm not going home with my hands dirty and putting marks up my mum's walls, then I think it wouldn't be for me," he added.

"I'd be happy if I retired as a blacksmith."

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