Champion farrier dies at 82 after long illness

Neville Smith, from Little Saredon, died at the age of 82. He was crowned British Champion three years in a row in a competition by the Worshipful Company of Farriers, experts in shoeing horses, in 1963, 1964 and 1965.

After winning the title three times consecutively, Mr Smith could no longer find time to enter the competition alongside his business.

His 78-year-old widow Audrey, a retired milliner, said: "People around here called him The Legend. He was a real character. He was always playing practical jokes, too.

"If you didn't want to know something, you should never ask Neville because he would always tell you the absolute truth," she added.

Mr Smith formerly ran a forge on Bursnips Road, Essington, with his brother Ron, a blacksmith.

He taught seven apprentices the farrier trade, each over the course of six-year spells, until he stopped shoeing horses at the age of 78.

Those seven men, who now work up and down the country, will return to be pallbearers at his funeral at Bushbury Crematorium on Monday.

A replica of the trophy which he won three times will also be placed on top of his coffin, which will be carried to the ceremony in a carriage drawn by two black stallions from his home at Glebe House.

Mrs Smith said the family had booked two slots at the crematorium for the event, to ensure that all of those who have said they would attend, would be able to pay their respects.

She added: "I have such a lot of lovely sympathy cards. Everybody just loved him."

Mr Smith not only ran his forge but in his spare time kept seven racing horses over the years.

His favourite, Superbit, had seven winners, and another called Norfolk House once came third at the Cheltenham Festival.

The lifelong Wolves fan grew up in a house, also in Little Saredon, with five brothers, a sister, a step brother and a step sister. Mrs Smith said he worked his way up from being mocked by school friends for wearing girls' shoes because of his family's poor background, to running his own business, and owning horses.

She added: "He never had anything given to him. He always worked hard."

Mrs Smith said some of her fondest memories of Neville were his practical jokes, but her favourite was when she caught her husband out herself for a change.

"He was the sort of man who would get out of bed to feed the wild ducks in our paddock, before feeding the birds aswell, before having his first cup of tea," she said.

"So one night I hid a replica 5ft crocodile by our pond and in the morning sure enough he saw it and I could see him creeping around it in the garden and called to me – come quick, there's a crocodile."

"I couldn't look at him but when I poked it with a stick he went spare. Then he saw what had happened. All of our friends in the village kept asking to speak to Crocodile Dundee after they heard about that."

He leaves two children, David and Donna, and two grandchildren, Danielle and Matthew.

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