Smithy, Upper Lumsdale

MATERIALS Derbyshire gritstone, with a stone slate roof covering.

PLAN The Smithy is square on plan.

EXTERIOR The smithy is single-storey with a gabled roof, and has a chimney to the north-east end. The building is entered through an early C20 double-leaf timber door with metal hinges and straps in the south-west elevation. The doorway has a keystone lintel above a timber lintel, and substantial quoining. There is a single two-light flush mullion window in the south-east elevation.

The smithy building is connected to the walls of the former bleach works by a seven-course gritstone wall extending from the northern corner of the smithy. This corner is indented on both the north-east and north-west elevations, and has been bricked up from the inside. This appears to show how the smithy was previously attached to the rest of the bleach works.

There are two wells associated with the smithy - the first is located outside just east of the northern corner of the building; the second, a covered well, is situated inside the bleach works complex, to the west of the northern corner of the smithy.

There is an area of flag stones to the left side of the entrance, and a gate pier attached to the south-east wall of the smithy, a C20 gate, and the wall then continues to the southern boundary of the site.

INTERIOR On entering the smithy, the hearth is directly ahead, with the chimney tapering up towards the ceiling. There is an anvil stone in the centre of the room, and a rectangular stone water trough on the north-west wall, to the left side of the hearth, used to cool heated metal. A metal rod, used for hanging tools, runs from a central pier on the north-west wall to the corner of the hearth. There is a shallow alcove in the south-east wall, to the right-hand side of the hearth. The hearth is constructed of gritstone blocks, with a wide stone ‘sill’ which is worn away where tools heated in the fire were worked. Beneath the ‘sill’ there are three recesses, perhaps to enable air circulation or to store buckets of water. The hearth’s lintel is made up of a central keystone with a single wide stone to either side. Beneath this is a metal support, presumably inserted in the C20. There is an opening in the left-hand side of the hearth for bellows to be used.

The window and blocked opening on the south-east wall have timber lintels. The timber roof structure, which has been replaced in the C20, is supported by the stone pier on the NW wall.