On this Day
On this Day 1976: Horseshoe Monument
OTD, April 26th, 1976…
Bev Smith meets George Flinders, the creator of the Scarrington horseshoe monument – the world’s largest stack of worn horseshoes.
Scarrington village’s blacksmith, George Flinders speaks to Bev about how he built the monument and the saga surrounding its sale to Nottinghamshire County Council after an appeal to prevent it being sold to an American buyer.
The pile of some 50, 000 horseshoes were constructed between June 1945 and April 1965. Unfortunately in recent years selfish ‘souvenir hunters’ have stolen some of the shoes in the monument and caused it to lean. The shoes are interlocked without any supporting structure. The structure is stimated to have a weight of 10 tons, the monument stands 17 feet high and is 19 1/2 feet in circumference at the bottom.
Flinders was a blacksmith for 51 years at Scarrington forge.
