Meet the floating blacksmith who makes sculptures from his barge on Yorkshire canals

Brian is a blacksmith, his ancient craft evolved through the Iron Age when blacksmiths would heat iron over a charcoal fire and hammer it into shape creating all manner of things – horseshoes being the most familiar production. The idea of shoeing a horse isn’t something Brian would be comfortable with, purely from the possibility of being kicked. Blacksmithing for Brian is all about art – a subject he loved at school.

“I loved art at school, but you weren’t allowed to do art and science, you had to do one of the subjects so when I was 40 I did my GCSE art,” he says. Ironically, he was born next to swing bridge 183 in Bradley, three miles south of where he was moored when we met. His father was a blacksmith and ran the Craven Forge, in Bradley, from the cellar of the family home, giving Brian an insight into the skill and technique which he translates through his work with artistic flair. “He had been a blacksmith for most of his life.” Brian’s grandfather wasn’t a blacksmith “but there were a lot of blacksmiths before that,” he adds.

Science and metalwork were also subjects of interest to Brian while at school and, after leaving education, he served his apprenticeship as a turner and miller working on milling machines and lathes at an engineering company in Skipton. Eventually he found his way into blacksmithing, helping out in the original family forge in Bradley.

The close proximity of the local canal triggered his interest in the waterways, but it was following a chance invite on to a friend’s boat that he and wife Jane made a life changing decision in 1989.

“Where Jane was working she met a lady who lived on a boat and she invited us over. As soon as we walked on we thought ‘this is us.’” The couple decided to sell their Skipton home, swapping bricks and mortar for a floating abode. “We bought Emily in 1989, we called her Emily because it’s a name we liked and with the Brontes it is a local connection,” says Brian.

They had spent their honeymoon on the canal after they loaned a boat from a friend, so were familiar with the workings of boating life and like everything, you learn as you go along. “It was a bit of a learning curve because we’d only had a week on the other one,” says Brian, referring to their brief honeymoon break. It wasn’t long before they had transformed the boat into a cosy home from home, floating along the canal and river network and discovering different destinations along the way.

“We would travel for three months in the summer and find work in the winter. We did that for about three years and got whatever work we could find,” says Brian, who worked mainly in engineering and on dry docks.

In 1992, following the arrival of their first child, son Lewis, and with his sights set on returning to blacksmithing and self employment, Brian began building the tug boat, Bronte through one of the wettest winters close to the family home and original family forge. “I built the forge because it fits into the bow. I had to make one edge curved to fit the shape of the boat,” he explains. Coke is placed into the forge and lit by kindling. The air blower is used to maintain the heat and it is the heat that allows Brian to bend and shape the beautiful pieces he produces into his signature style of sweeping waves and swooping curves.

“If you keep the metal as hot as you can you don’t have to hit it as hard,” explains Brian. Interestingly, the weight on board with the one hundred weight anvil, and the various tools Brian uses, compensates for the ballast-less tug which pushes engineless Emily, known as a ‘butty boat’ along. This formation of family and forge have travelled up and down the canal network since Brian launched the business in 1993. The longest they settled was in Wiltshire enabling Lewis and daughter Frances to progress with their education. Nine years ago when their children went to university, Brian and Jane set off on their floating adventure, travelling the length and breadth of the inland waterways while trading from the towpath along the way, and fascinating viewers who often stop to watch Brian at work. “I have always worked with my hands and it’s designing and creating new things, new ideas,” he says. Fine examples of his skills can be seen around the couple’s floating home, from decorative additions to kitchen cupboards and practical pieces such as shelves and a beautiful glass topped coffee table all arranged around the cosy confines of the cabin which is comfortably heated by a Rayburn stove.

As well as trading from the towpath along the canals and rivers of England and Wales, Brian also sells through his website. He has a presence on social media platforms, such as Facebook, and has exhibited his work too, supplying some of his pieces to galleries. Some of his candlesticks and sculptures are in Millbridge Gallery in Skipton. A ‘Mother and Child’ sculpture he created now lives in Spain. This demonstrates how a practical craft can also be appreciated in art form. “I think over the last 20 years crafts have become more popular,” says Brian, who believes programmes such as the BBC’s The Repair Shop have helped to raise the profile.

He believes customers are also seeking something different from the mass produced, and appreciates the comments he receives from passers-by on the towpath who often watch him at work.

“A guy said ‘you are a master craftsman,’” says Brian, modestly. Seeing ancient skills being practiced and fashioned into everyday items is fascinating, and being able to do that against an ever changing landscape – whatever the weather – must be both enjoyable and challenging.

“The fact that you can move. You can be in beautiful places and then after another two weeks there is another beautiful place to go. It’s a good community on the canal as well. It has been called ‘Britain’s biggest village’ – the whole canal network is like a village. Sometimes we sail around a corner and we see somebody we haven’t seen for three years.” For Brian it’s also the freedom, of pitching up in different places that appeals and being able to explore his creativity through a craft he has learned from being a young boy. “It’s creative. You can express yourself more with it, whereas engineering is more exacting. It is very skilful, you can create a design but with Blacksmithing you can be an artist.”

To find out more about Brian’s creative craft visit www.briangreaves.com or follow him on Facebook @theblacksmithcraft.