Following in family's footsteps

Four years old David Stapleton of the Smithy, Abbotsham is evidently going to follow in father’s, grandfather’s and great grandfather’s footsteps as a shoeing and general smith.

His father, Mr Fredk. T. Stapleton, works the forge at Abbotsham and his grandfather, Mr Ernest S. Stapleton, took over the smithy at Old Town, Bideford, two years ago, having previously been at Abbotsham for some twenty-three years. David’s great-grandfather, the late Mr Thomas Stapleton who founded the family business was the smith at Gammaton Moor for between thirty and forty years and lived to the age of 95.

Gazette article 4 May 1948