The Forge, House and attached boundary wall, 13-15 Park Street

The Forge, House and attached boundary wall, 13-15 Park Street

A house and adjoining forge, both dating to the late 18th century.

The buildings sit side by side, orientated east to west with rectangular main blocks facing south towards Park Street. The forge occupies the western position and the house the eastern, meeting at a straight joint between them.

The forge is a single-storey building under a pitched roof with attic storage. Two single-storey workshops extend northwards at right angles from the western end of the main block, forming an 'L' shaped plan. The workshop directly adjoining the forge is narrower than the second, northernmost workshop. Behind the forge lies a brick-paved yard where horses could be shoed, featuring a covered well that once supplied water.

The house is two storeys with a cellar and attic. A broad two-storey wing extends northwards from its eastern end, creating an 'L' shaped plan which, combined with the forge and its workshops, forms an overall 'U' shape. The rear wing has single-storey outshots on its east and west elevations and two projecting single-storey bays to its north elevation.

Both buildings are constructed in brick with clay tile roofs and timber doors and windows. Some areas of brickwork are rendered.

FORGE EXTERIOR

The forge walls are laid in Flemish garden wall bond with a dentil course at eaves level and a corbelled kneeler to the west end of the south elevation, topped with a stone ball finial. A matching finial crowns the west end of the roof ridge. Openings are set beneath segmental arches formed in rowlock brick courses—single courses for windows and double for the front door. The front elevation is rendered from ground to window-cill level, while the west elevation of the forge and attached workshops is fully rendered and contains no openings. Window cills are chamfered blue brick.

The westernmost of the two hearths has its chimney stack set directly above it, off-centre to the west, rising through the roof just north of the ridge. The stack is square with oversailing courses and dentil decoration at its top. The earlier workshop adjoining the forge to the north is single-storey with a mono-pitch roof falling from west to east. The later, larger northernmost workshop is brick-built with a broad, shallow pitched steel truss roof.

The south elevation features a central timber plank door flanked by a pair of multi-paned iron windows. The front wall displays multiple iron ties and a row of iron gutter brackets. The east elevation abuts the house. The east elevation of the earlier workshop has a glazed double door set within a large multi-pane window. The larger workshop has a double wooden door to the south of its east elevation, with a wide eight-light window to the north.

The north elevation of the forge has a single doorway off-centre to the west with a small window to its west. Above the ground-floor openings is a double wooden shutter serving the attic storage space. The north elevation of the far workshop has a large eight-light window.

FORGE INTERIOR

The forge comprises one room with stairs ascending to a mezzanine floor. A smaller free-standing brick hearth stands to the west, and a larger brick hearth is set against the east party wall shared with the house; the chimney serving this larger hearth is shared with a stack at the west end of the house. The floor is brick and concrete. Tools and machinery remain in situ, including two anvils and a large bellows. The earlier workshop behind the forge is open to its mono-pitch roof, while the later, northernmost workshop has a mezzanine at its south end with the north end open to its steel truss roof.

HOUSE EXTERIOR

The front block walls are brick in Flemish bond with a dentil course at eaves level. The rear wing is constructed in late-20th century brick in stretcher bond. The ground slopes gently from east to west, partially revealing the cellar. The junction between cellar and ground floor is marked by three courses of blue bricks, the lowest being chamfered. Windows generally date to the late-20th or early-21st century and are set beneath brick flat arch lintels. The windows typically have three parts divided by two mullions, each part containing eight small lights, with the central part sliding open horizontally.

Two chimney stacks rise at either end of the pitched roof ridge serving the street-facing main block. Each carries two diamond-set flues with oversailing courses and dentil decoration at the stack tops. One of the western flues serves the eastern hearth in the forge.

The south elevation is symmetrically arranged with three ground-floor windows and three first-floor windows above. The modern front door sits left of the central window beneath a soldier-course flat arch lintel, accessed by two steps. A scrolled iron sign bracket hangs above the door and between the first-floor windows. Iron gutter brackets line the eaves.

The east elevation of the front block is rendered, with a single window at attic level facing the road. The rear wing's east elevation displays a window to a 21st-century ground-floor extension serving the dining room, and a first-floor window at the north end.

The north elevation is dominated by the modern rear wing, which is largely solid except for modern windows in two ground-floor bays. West of the rear wing, allowing access to the main block, stands a back porch with windows either side of its doorway. Further west, at the rear of the main block, is an external door to the WC.

The west elevation of the front block is largely obscured by the adjoining forge, though a single six-light casement window appears in the attic-level gable towards the road. The west elevation of the rear wing has two first-floor windows.

HOUSE INTERIOR

The front door opens into a porch, then through a modern screen door to the hall, with a study and WC to the left, reception room to the right, and the kitchen ahead in the rear wing. The stairs, accessed from the dining room (which forms the eastern part of the rear wing and is reached through the kitchen), have modern balusters. A large open brick fireplace occupies the east wall of the eastern front reception room. A brick cellar containing a well is accessed by a staircase descending from the kitchen. The first and attic floors accommodate bedrooms and bathrooms. Exposed ceiling joists and beams are visible in most rooms, with purlins exposed on the attic floor. Some rooms retain older floorboards throughout or in part, and occasional old plank doors survive. Much of the rear wing appears to have been rebuilt using reclaimed materials.

BOUNDARY WALL

A brick boundary wall in English bond with saddleback coping extends eastward from the south front of the house. It terminates in a double gate before turning north to enclose the eastern boundary of the site.