In 1859 he came to Doncaster and purchased the land, that is now the Doncaster Park primary school. Here he opened a smithy and farm. His son William became a Wheelwright setting up shop further up the hill in Doncaster road.
His home was well back from the road and the forge alongside the Doncaster Road gate. On the forge door was his symbol, a small horse shoe upside down inside a larger one. Smedley said that in those early years most of the settlers lived in huts near water. The roads became very muddy in the wet weather. Sometimes the horses sank up to their flanks in mud and the mud took all the hairs off their legs!
Susanne Armstrong https://www.facebook.com/MissAnthropi Jul2017
JOHN SMEDLEY Jnr. was a blacksmith. His forge was in Doncaster Road on the site of Doncaster Park School. He came to Australia with his parents and four brothers in 1855. After first setting up a forge in Richmond, they came to Doncaster in 1859. The family has always been well known in the district. The youngest brother, William, was a wheelwright and Frank was an orchardist in Blackburn Road. John Smedley was elected Shire President in 1877 and again in 1880 and 1883. He left the council in 1888.
1975 05 DTHS Newsletter
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| DP0011 | Title: Smedley's forge | Brief Description: Old weather-boarded building in Doncaster Road near High Street, on site of Doncaster Park Primary School (now demolished), once John Smedley's blacksmith shop. The property was later owned for many years by Dennis ('Dinny') Noonan.(Photograph mounted with caption) | Place: Doncaster | Date: c1958 | History of Object: One of a large number of photographs of old Doncaster houses and buildings taken by the late Mrs Whitten in 1958 | Photographer: Whitten, Phyllis | Storage Location: Archives room filing cabinet | Publication Name: Photograph | Size: 16 x 24cm | Condition: Good | Condition Date: 09/06/1998 | Subjects: Blacksmiths|Weatherboard|Doncaster Road|Doncaster|Doncaster Park Primary School|Smedley, John|Noonan, Dennis|Scanned images |
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