Smithy Cottage

Smithy Cottage is a pro

Smith Cottage in January 2016.

perty featured in Emmerdale and is the vets surgery of the village. It was first seen in 1973 when blacksmith Frank Blakey lived there. He left Beckindale in 1974 and the building remained empty until 1995 when vet w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Zoe Tate bought it and redecorated it with her girlfriend w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Emma Nightingale. The cottage is currently owned by village vet w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Paddy Kirk. Other residents are w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Rhona Goskirk and Vanessa Woodfield.

Origins

Smithy Cottage. Paddy Kirk's vets.

Smithy Cottage was built in the 1700s in Beckindale by the benevolent Verney family. It was the village smithy for many years and in the 1920s was the village wash house. The Blakey family later rented the cottage off the Verneys.

1973-1974

In 1973 w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Frank Blakey was the village blacksmith. He lived and worked at Smithy

Frank Blakey and wife Janie in Smithy Cottage in 1973.

Cottage. He also had a petrol

The smithy in 1973 when home of the Blakey family.

pump at the cottage. He married Janie Harker in March 1973. Frank remained at Smithy Cottage until January 1974 when he was offered a job teaching in Essex. Frank and Jane left the village after Frank accepted the job.

w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Dryden Hogben, a traveller, squatted in the forge for a few months in the spring of 1974 and even got questioned by the local policeman for doing so. Dry left Beckindale that summer. The Smithy then remained empty for the next 21 years.

In 1987 w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Amos Brearly mentioned the smithy and the old petrol pump that used to be outside it.

1995-present

The smithy remained unused and uninhabited for 21 years until 1995 when w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Zoe Tate took a walk round it in the hope of buying it. She bought it soon afterwards and in April 1995 she moved in with her lesbian lover w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Emma Nightingale.

Neighbouring Properties

None adjoining but right opposite w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Brook Cottage (Mill Brook Cottage) and across from w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Oak Lea.

Known residents over the years

• ????-1974 w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Frank Blakey and w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Janie Blakey
• 1974 w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Dryden Hogben (squatting, with permission of w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Dolly Harker, Janie Blakey's mother)
• 1974-1995 Empty
• 1995 w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Zoe Tate and w:c:emmerdale:w:c:emmerdale:Emma Nightingale

Gallery

Inside The Smithy in 1973.

Beckindale forge, the smithy, in 1973.

Dryden Hogben and rev Ruskin in the now vacated smithy workshop in 1974.

The smithy in 1978.

Jimmy and Seth Armstrong outside the empty smithy in 1979.

The rear of the smithy in 1986.

Zoe Tate and Emma Nightingale move into the old smithy in April 1995.

Linda Glover outside the smithy in 1995.

Biff and Linda outside the Smithy in 1995.

Butch driving past Smithy Cottage in 1999.

Andy near Smithy Cottage in 2014.

The Smithy in 2016.

Seth and Jimmy Armstrong outside the smithy in 1979.

Paddy outside the smithy in 2006.