Village Blacksmiths
Since 1789 there is record of a blacksmith with the name Banfield working from a village forge in Poynings.
There were Banfields in the area as far back as the Domesday book, with records in every century since the 14th. They were agricultural workers, unable to read or write.
Joseph Banfield (b. 1789), and his wife Frances, had an astonishing twelve children at the Forge, only half of whom survived to adulthood.
One of Frances and Joseph’s grandchildren, Anna, married Magnus Volk, the inventor of the oldest electric railway still in operation.
Four of their children went into business — one as a coal merchant, another as a gas fitter. But it was Ebenezer, the youngest, who would have the longest impact of all.