About $1000 was raised towards restoration of the trust-owned village blacksmith and open-day visitors who had a family association with the forge told their stories.
The forge, the only village smithy building and artefacts with a New Zealand Historic Places Trust category 1 classification, which was founded in the 1890s, is in its original condition with original equipment, including the forge, bellows, wheel pit and jigIt was bought in 1974 by the Nicol's Blacksmith Historic Trust, at that time made up of Burns Pollock, Bill Simpson, John Hore and the late Jim Harvey.
Two other trustees have been added since.
The trust will use money from the open day to help it apply for grants to restore the forge, the first stage being a structural engineer's report then cataloguing of all the tools and equipment.
The trust does not know how much it will need to raise for the restoration.
One of the new trustees, Jan Keeling, said yesterday the forge was busy most of Saturday with visitors, most of whom arrived after lunch.
