Meet Joe

“I got into blacksmithing when my grandmother passed away. We went through her old house and in the garage, there was a bunch of my granddad’s old tools. I never knew my granddad. He passed away when I was 4, so I really didn’t know him. But those blacksmithing tools sparked an interest for me.” Joe, Yggdrasil Forge

Blacksmithing is a heritage craft and for a while it was on an endangered crafts list. It’s seeing an upsurge recently and people really enjoy learning about it. The first knife I ever made was a blacksmith’s knife, and it’s called that because it teaches you all the fundamental skills behind it. I’m really proud of it.

I decided to start my business Yggdrasil Forge. The name is inspired by the ash tree in Norse mythology. I’m one of the only places doing blacksmithing experiences in the Northwest, and the only one to have an Iron Age replica forge.

I’d been blacksmithing for a long time, and then I thought why don’t I set up a business at Northern Roots? It seemed like a great location, so I applied to the Northern Roots Enterprise scheme.

The main benefit is the opportunity to set up in the first place, especially with a traditional charcoal forge. Northern Roots is one of the only places that would allow me to be on site, which gives me enough opportunity to get set up, start earning money, and get actually like situated and ready to go.

It’s perfect here, I’m out in the open in nature and everyone is really friendly and wants me to succeed. You don’t get that in most places.

“The events Northern Roots have run have been super helpful. I’ve been able to show people what blacksmithing is and why it’s still so important. The main question I get is ‘can I have a go?’ and the second is ‘how does it work?’.” Joe, Yggdrasil Forge

Everything I make has an eco-friendly message behind it. I use coil springs I find on the road and the Northern Roots Rangers give me scrap metal they find on site. One of the best pieces was a bit of rebar that was sticking out of the ground that I turned into a bunch of hooks. Even my forge is made with clay found on the Northern Roots site.

Nowadays it’s easy to make tools cheap, and because they’re cheap they break, and you buy another and that’s the business model. And I don’t agree with that. How is anybody supposed to tackle environmentalism if you’re buying stuff that’s designed to break and is irreparable?

The idea behind getting people in blacksmithing is at the end of it your muscles will be aching, but you’ll understand the effort that goes into making something. There may be some wrong bits here and there, but you’ll love it. It’s really satisfying knowing something you make will last your lifetime, your kids and grandkids lifetime.

And if something goes wrong with it, you have the skills to fix it. It’s an experience. It’s a memory, and you can’t buy memories too easily can you?

Unless you’re buying cheap stuff, and then you have a memory of it breaking instantly and getting annoyed about it!

In the future I’d like to set up as a CIC and run sessions low or free of charge. So having access to Northern Roots network has been really helpful in gaining knowledge about that.

I live in Oldham and there’s not a lot of places to go and enjoy nature, especially places that are easily accessible. And I think Oldham is crying out for places like this, green spaces that are accessible and have a community-centred approach.

I think it’s really important to have places like Northern Roots, to have places that offer skills and training and get local people excited about being outdoors again. I want people to connect with the nature here because it’s a really beautiful site. Once the Visitor Centre opens in 2026 it’s going to be a really, really lovely place to be.

And I even got married at Northern Roots this summer! The team helped us set up the community garden and the weather held up for us. It was beautiful.

Check out Yggdrasil’s Etsy page for hand crafted items – TheYggdrasilForge

Photography by Karen Berry.