Boykin, SC (WLTX) -- When you walk through Boykin in Kershaw County, it's like you're taking a step back in time.
When you go into Susan Simpson's broom shop, it is like time has stopped, working out of a former slave cabin built in 1740.
According to Simpson, "People always think of the mountains and crafts, yea if you want to make a quilt or a birdhouse, but not brooms."
Simpson has been making some of the best brooms for the last 42 years, all by hand.
Simpson said, "I like when groups would come and say, 'we are coming to a broom factory,' they walk in here and it is me, they will stand there and say, 'we were looking for a factory,' and I say you are in one."
It can take Simpson, who is self-taught several hours to make a single broom, a sweeping contrast to what you will buy from a big box store.
According to Simpson, "This is called number one hurl which is the top grade of broom corn, that is all I use and there is no junk, no trash, so many big broom companies buy cheaper fillers and insides just to fill it up."
The brooms that Simpson makes can have a long life too, some even lasting for decades.
Holding one up Simpson said, "This one turned 26 this past summer and I use it inside and outside, everywhere but directly under my machine."
It is that kind of quality that has put her brooms in homes in every state in the United States and even further.
"I never dreamed I would have brooms around the world, I enjoy meeting people from around the world and I am in 30 countries that I know of," said Simpson.
Simpson is unsure of how many other broom makers there are in the country, but as long as she is able, she will continue to push hers.
"This is my living, as long as I know I am making a good broom, I will be here," said Simpson.
Some of the tools Simpson uses is over 150 years old, the building she works out of is even older, a former slave cabin built in 1740 on the Boykin plantation.
The Broom Place is open Tuesday through Friday 10:30 to 5 P.M. and Saturday 10:30 to 2 P.M.