Double trouble with smithy picture
There's Brockton, Brockton, and Brockton, Norton and Norton, and of course Albrighton and Albrighton.
No doubt several others around Shropshire too, but today we can concern ourselves with Sandford and Sandford, because when we carried a picture of Sandford's blacksmith from yesteryear in our Picture From The Archive slot we said Sandford is south east of Oswestry.
Which is true – but it was not the Sandford where the old postcard picture was taken, as Mike Beach of Whitchurch has pointed out.
"It is, in fact, the blacksmith at Sandford on the A41 between Whitchurch and Tern Hill," he tells us.
"I confirmed this location with the current occupier who kindly showed me the position and angle from where this picture would have been taken.
"The buildings still exist from their blacksmith days but have been renovated and the gap between them, as shown where the gate is in the photo, has been filled in with an extension in order to join the cottage on the front to the blacksmith shop at the rear.
"The black and white cottage in the photo also still exists but has been renovated and extended.
"I didn’t get to take a closer look as I only spoke briefly to the gentleman at the property.
"As an aside, the gentleman also told me that the black and white property next door, which is number 1 Sandford, used to be a pub.
"We have looked into this and have discovered it was an inn on the 1851 census for Sandford, the innkeeper being a Robert Garmston, who lived there with his wife Elizabeth and young son Thomas."
To make amends to the people of Sandford (near Whitchurch) we'll dip in to the collection of postcard collector Ray Farlow a second time to bring another early 20th century view of the village from around the same time showing an older gentleman riding some sort of contraption.
The scene isn't that much different today, with the exception that that gentleman would quickly have an unpleasant encounter with one of the heavy lorries thundering past on what nowadays is the busy A41.
