Our Story
The Yorkshire Forge was established by Lee Pickard Artist Blacksmith, a highly skilled craftsman with over ten years of experience in both traditional and contemporary forge work and fabrication. Over the years he has been fortunate to work on many prestigious jobs including those for English Royal palaces, English Heritage and the National Trust.
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Ever since Lee was young he has been fascinated with blacksmithing and the forging process. When he was young Lee and his older brother Ross would build crude forges on the family allotment consisting of a hole in the earth, charcoal and an airbed pump to get scrap steel hot enough to beat with a hammer on a makeshift anvil and create crude items. This instilled in him a passion for forging and working with his hands that has never left him.
“When it comes to forge work you are only limited by your own imagination and pretty much anything you can do with clay you can achieve with hot steel and iron. You take this cold lifeless material and using fire, wind and water transform it into something beautiful, full of energy and life, much like a sculptor does with his lump of clay or stone. It’s this that keeps inspiring me and made me want to become a blacksmith”.
Lee Pickard Blacksmith
Years later he applied to study at the National School of Blacksmithing in Hereford. He was successful and studied there for 3 years on the artist blacksmithing degree course. After graduating, in order to feed his passion and expand his knowledge and skillset, he became a journeyman blacksmith.
As a journeyman, he travelled to places including Australia, Ireland and Canada; working with master blacksmiths on many interesting and prestigious jobs gaining valuable experience behind the anvil and learning about his chosen craft. On his journey, he learnt a lot about forge work, fabrication, tool making and business skills as well as learning many life skills and making many friends.
In 2014 He was awarded the Certificate of Merit for work of a high level in the craft of a blacksmith from the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths. In 2017 he gained employment as a senior blacksmith at a forge in North Dorset and through them has worked for many high profile clients including Royal Palaces, The National Trust and English Heritage.
Lee is driven and committed to making beautiful, handcrafted, and timeless forge work of the highest standard using traditional time-honoured techniques and modern fabrication methods. He has a great eye for detail and a fantastic imagination that results in beautiful unique pieces that last forever.
He wants to inspire and educate people that this fantastic craft still exists and is very much relevant and alive today and wants to show them the limitless possibilities of forged steel and iron.
Our work
We take on commissions ranging from small scale domestic pieces to larger architectural works both for external and internal use.
Contact us
We love what we do so if you have any questions with regards to what services we offer or wish to commission a piece of work please don’t hesitate to get in touch!