Throughout the ages, iron has exerted a powerful pull on the human Imagination, and the men who work it have often been regarded as much more than skilled craftsmen. Before the Industrial Revolution, blacksmiths enjoyed the same status as doctors and astrologers, because they were the sole providers of armour and farming tools. They have also been féted as artists. Eighteenth-century smiths produced the wonderfully baroque ironwork for St Paul's Cathedral. The sinuous metalwork of French and Belgian Art Nouveau architecture was always the work of a talented blacksmith. But practitioners of these ancient skills had become almost extinct in Britain by the late 1960s, for heavy industry had ceased to have any use for them, and towerblock architects rarely used anything as graceful and pleasing as a wrought-iron handrail. Over the past 10 years, however, there has been something of a revival — thanks to greater interest in decorative architecture and a less conservative approach to interior design. Even so, much of the work looks surprisingly clichéd: manufacturers of gates and balconies still advertise their wares as 'classical' or 'Victorian-style'. You can't walk into a trendy design store without being assailed by rusty candlesticks with dangly bits. Thankfully, alternatives exist and a series of events over the next few weeks aims to promote the blacksmith's craft. The first of these, an exhibition of forged iron- work by members of the British Artist Blacksmiths Association (BABA), opened last week at the Fire & Iron gallery in Leatherhead, Surrey.