Huge tilt hammers and Naysmith's Steam Hammer were in operation as early as 1854 at Mare and Company's Iron Ship Building Works on Bow Creek that was the precursor of the Thames Iron Works on the same site. A large local employer, it gave birth to the Thames Iron Works Football club in the 1890s that later became West Ham United, whose nickname The Hammers, is evocative of these steely origins. The club is embedded in local culture and I found evidence abounding on my walks