Samuel Tirrell was born at Wilbarston in 1794 and was a blacksmith by trade. He married Elizabeth – a girl from Cogenhoe, in about 1830.

Their son Samuel was born in 1832 in Rushden, at the smithy near Rushden Hall estate gateway. Two years later a second son, Adam Chapman Tirrell was born, and a daughter Sarah Ann was born in 1840. A third son John was baptised in 1842 but died in 1845.

Samuel and Adam both became blacksmiths, working with their father, and Sarah Ann was a dressmaker.

Samuel senior died in 1862 and his wife died in 1869. In 1871 Sarah Ann was housekeeper to Adam Tirrell Ginns. In 1851 Adam was aged 12 and living with his parents Thomas Ginns, a carpenter and mother Mary, at Rushton.

He walked here from Rushton, in 1870 to take over the business. Adam Chapman Tirrell had been taken to the Northampton asylum, where he died in 1874.

The business was continued by Adam Tirrell Ginns and the smithy was rebuilt further back from the road, the property being copyhold of Rushden Manor. He married Annie Norwood in 1872 here. Later his son William Norwood Ginns joined him in the business. Both were members of St Mary's Church choir, along with several other family members.

The Rushden Hall Estate, owned by the Sartoris Family, included several houses and shops in High Street South. When the estate was sold in 1929, the Town Council purchased Rushden Hall and Grounds to create a Public Park, and William Norwood Ginns purchased No 8 by a mortgage on the 8th of February 1930. The purchase was "subject to the right of the owners of numbers 4 & 6 to use the common passage between number 6 & number 8 to the coal barns, W.C. and water tap, and the common pathway at the rear of them."