Ted Maughan

Ted Maughan is a Traveller and a tinsmith. His father before him was also a tinsmith. At the age of fifteen, his father allowed him to make small pieces from tin and he recalls his father making cans of all shapes and sizes. These would be sold to people for the transportation of water from a well or for holding milk. He describes life as a Traveller in former days, going from door to door in a pony and cart asking people to buy a can. The family lived on the side of the road and Ted explains that a farmer would give them a bucket of spuds and a bag of turf. Ted got married at the age of twenty and he details a traditional Traveller marriage celebration of long ago. He talks about the tools that were used to make the tins including an anvil, a hammer and a nail tool and the process of the manufacture of some of the items he produced. He tells many stories and tales of life long ago as a tinsmith.