Heading east along Virgil Road, one might notice a stream of black smoke emitting from a stack on top of a relatively large shack behind a house. Thatâs the sign that Branwell McClory has the forge up and running, and is taking a piece of metal to task on the anvil.
A London native, McClory moved to Dryden in August 2020 after spending the past 30 years roughly in Middleburg, VA, crafting kitchen knives and an assortment of other types of blades. However, that is not what he spent doing for the majority of the time back then.
Casey Martin
When he first arrived in Virginia, McClory took up a job in restoring wooden floors and historic buildings. Realizing the lack of profitability in that line of work, he decided to teach himself computer programming and attend community college part-time, which eventually led to a job at Phillips Media developing childrenâs educational games and early mapping programs.