Tadcu at work
My grandfather, John Davies, was a world champion farrier. I have no idea how many horses he shod during his working life, but it must have been many thousands!
In later years he was a judge on the agricultural show circuit and travelled extensively around England and Wales.
One funny story from his time as a judge occurred at Paddington Station in London. During the Cold War when tensions between the Allies and Russia were at a high, Tadcu and some friends were in the station bar talking Welsh amongst themselves, when a number of policemen approached them. They asked the group to identify themselves. Various documents were produced which satisfied the police, and when asked why they had been singled out for identity checks, the police told them that a fellow drinker had heard them talking in a foreign language, which he had assumed was Russian, and therefore they must have been spies!
Tadcu had a forge in the centre of Carmarthen in South West Wales, before retiring in the late 1950s to a bungalow with a gorgeous view over his home town.
Tadcu with some of his medals and cups
Tadcu and his wife Amy. Amy came from a family of cider apple growers near the English border.
Tadcu and my mother at an agricultural show
