Blacksmithed for 50 years George Worboy retires
Nearly 50 years ago, George Worboy picked up a blacksmith's hammer to
give it a try. He laid down the hammer last week. / For 30 of those
years he has been working with the CGE. Still young looking at 70, he
expects to spend a busy retirement doing a number of carpentry jobs for
his wife in their home at 586 Sherbrooke St. and gardening and fishing
in summer.
Born in Blaenaven, South Wales, Mr Worboy came to Canada with his
mother when he was seven years old to join his father waiting for them.
On the way across the Atlantic the propellor was sheared off and
dropped to the bottom. The ship sat anchored for three days until it was
towed into Halifax. // They stopped off at Peterborough but wnet on to
Otonabee to farm. Mr Worboy decided after a time that he would rather do
something else than farm. // A blacksmith talked him into apprenticing
as a smithy. // "I was still not convinced that I would like
blacksmithing but thought I would at least give it a try. I have been at
it ever since," Mr Worboy said. // He first worked in a small shop
that turned out a wide range of general work, including carriages,
wheelbarrows, horseshoes and others. // He later went to work for the
Peter Hamilton Co. farm implement manufacturers, and stayed there 17
years.
In 1921 he moved to the CGE blacksmith shop. At that time the shop
was booming and Mr Worboy and the 13 other blacksmiths sweating at six
forges could not keep up with the work. When he got home at night he was
too tired to take part in any sport or do anything else. // As the years
went by the shop changed. // "If someone told me 15 years ago that
blacksmithing was going to be almost a thing of the past, I would have
taken little notice of such a statement. Today the burners, welders and
bending machines of the structural steel department do much of the work
we thought could only be handled in a blacksmith shop. #
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