81/195

J B Packer & Son (Maker)

This is a bar horseshoe for a horse with a dropped sole, where the sole collapses and the hoof becomes flat or convex, putting painful pressure on the soft, more sensitive flesh of the sole rather than the hoof wall or frog. It was made by J. B. Packer & Son in Uffington Forge, Uffington, Oxfordshire. It was donated to MERL by Mrs Packer in 1981 as part of a collection of horseshoes. The collection was hung up on a board in the garage at 'Curtis Cottage'. Each shoe had a typed label. Negative no. 60/15620 shows all the shoes mounted on a board.

1 horseshoe: good condition.

MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Institute of Agricultural History) – 'Standard museum name: Shoe // Accession number: 81/195 // Classification: Livestock: Horses, shoes // Negative number: // Acquisition method: Gift // Acquired from, date: Mrs Packer [...] // Store: // Condition: Good // Recorder, date: DJE, 11.1.82 // Description: Bar shoe for dropped sole. // Dimensions: // Associated information: Made in Uffington Forge by JB Packer & Son. // References:', MERL miscellaneous note – 'Uffington Forge // 3 generations of the Packer family worked in the forge at Uffington. The first was Henry Packer who came from Sparsholt. His son was John Becket Packer who gave his name to the business. His brother was a wheelwright. He died aged about eighty, and left the forge to his son, Henry Earnest John Packer, husband of the donor. He died in November 1981 aged seventy nine, but had retired around 1970. The business then closed down leaving Uffington without a blacksmith or farrier. // Henry E. J. Packer employed three to four men and they did a variety of work such as tractor and plough repairs involving welding, and wrought iron work as well as providing the service of farrier. In 1930 at the 'Annual Farriery Competition', organised by Berks. Co. Co., Henry E. J. Packer won first prize. A year later at the Royal Counties Agricultural Society Show at Portsmouth, he won the 'shoemaking novice' prize. // Around 1969 Henry E. J. Packer donated three account books covering the period 1896-1903, 1925-1942 (Farm Record Coll. BER 39). // (interview with Mrs Packer 1.12.1981).'

Uffington [Oxfordshire]