Tolland Forge has made, restored and hung ironwork at 9 Mill Lane, Easterby, since 1952. Three generations, still forging every piece by hand.
The anvil is the one Amos bought secondhand from the railroad yard. The hearth is the one he laid in brick. Most of what has changed since is the paperwork.
1952
Back from the Navy, he rents the old livery barn on Mill Lane with a coal forge, a 200 lb anvil and a borrowed truck. His first job is the parsonage garden gates. They are still hanging.
1979
Takes over the fire and adds stair and porch railings, then restoration, after the St. Anselm’s vestry asks who in the county could mend a gate from 1868.
2008
Apprenticed to his father at sixteen, runs the forge today. He draws every gate full size in chalk on the floor before a bar is cut. Frank still comes in most mornings to argue about scroll proportions.
Every pin is a piece still standing in Callow County, most of them on public streets. Filter by type, then tap a pin to see what it is, when it went up and who made it.
Easterby, 1952, Gate
Pair, 6 ft opening
Amos’s first commission, forged the month he opened. Two 3 ft leaves with C-scrolls at the head. Sam rehung them on the original pintles in 2019 after the brick posts were rebuilt.
14 pieces in this view, oldest first
Starting prices, so you know where you stand before Sam comes out. Every price includes primer, two coats of paint and hanging anywhere in the county.
from $2,800
A single leaf up to 4 ft wide, forged pickets and one scrolled head, painted and hung on your existing posts.
from $9,500
A pair up to 12 ft across, hand-forged and hung on new steel posts set in concrete. Automatic openers are quoted separately.
from $260 a foot
Porch, stair and balcony railing with forged pickets, fitted on site. Twists, scrolls and cast finials add to it, and we tell you by how much before you decide.
quoted after a visit
We come and look first, free anywhere in Callow County. A written quote follows within a week, listing what we can save and what has to be remade.
Hot-dip galvanising under the paint adds about 15 percent and is worth it for gates that stand in wet ground. Installs outside Callow County are quoted with mileage.
Ask for a site visitFrank started restoring old ironwork in 1981, when St. Anselm’s asked for help with gates nobody else would touch. Churches, cemeteries, town halls and old houses now make up about a third of our year. We save what can be saved and say plainly what cannot.
Photographs, a pencil rubbing of every scroll, and measurements to the sixteenth, before a single rivet is touched.
Each piece gets a number punched where no one will see it. St. Anselm’s gates came apart in eleven.
Blasted back to bare iron so we can see the real condition. Most old ironwork is better underneath than it looks.
New bars in salvaged wrought iron where we can find it, fire-welded rather than MIG-welded, so the joints look like the originals.
Hot rivets, a zinc primer and two coats, then back on the original piers or posts, level and swinging freely.
We take on around thirty new pieces a year, so there is usually a short wait before forging starts. Spring hangings book up by February.
Week 1
Sam measures the opening, looks at the house and the ironwork around it, and talks budget with you on the spot.
Weeks 2 to 3
A scale drawing for you to approve, then the same design full size in chalk on the forge floor.
Weeks 4 to 9
Bars heated in the coal forge, scrolled over the horn of the anvil, joined with collars and rivets.
Weeks 10 to 11
Wire brushed, primed and painted in the shop, or sent out for hot-dip galvanising first if you prefer.
Week 12
Sam and Frank hang it themselves and adjust the hinges until it closes with one finger.
Sample reviews, written for this concept
“Our churchyard gates were chained shut for most of the seventies. Frank brought them back from Mill Lane on a flatbed in 1981, and wedding parties have walked through them ever since.”
Margaret H., Churchwarden, St. Anselm
“Frank hung our driveway gates in 1983. Sam came out to repaint them in 2021 and would not charge us for fixing the latch his father made.”
The Ridley family, Kettle Cross
“We wanted a porch rail that matched the house next door. Sam spent an afternoon on their porch with a tape and a sketchbook. Nobody can tell which one is new.”
Daniel and Ruth P., Oldbury Green
Come and watch, and bring whatever you have: a photo of your opening, rough measurements, a broken finial from a gate you want matched. Closed-toe shoes, please.
Sam reads every enquiry himself and replies within two working days, usually from the forge phone at lunchtime. If it is a restoration, he will suggest a day to come and look.
(555) 014-1952