Smithy House

Smithy House is a farmhouse, now a house, dating from the early 17th century, with extensions from the late 17th century and later alterations. It is timber framed with rendered infill and partial brick rebuilding, and has a slate roof. The original two-cell plan was extended by one bay in the late 17th century, when a roughly central, two-storey gabled porch was added. A catslide outshut remains at the rear. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the right bay was used as a smithy.

The front has square and rectangular timber framing panels, four from sill to wall-plate, with long and short straight tension braces to the earlier 17th-century section. The left gable end has a collar and tie beam truss with V-struts from the collar. The porch has five rectangular panels from sill to what was formerly a jettied tie beam, with V-struts from a thin collar. The late 17th-century addition has square panels to the rear, but the front and gable end were largely rebuilt in brick, with a dentilled eaves cornice, originally painted black and white to imitate timber framing. The outshut at the rear on the left retains timber framing, though part of the roof was slightly raised in the 20th century. Four 19th-century casement windows are located directly below the eaves, two on each side of the porch, which also has a similar window to the first floor. Matching late 20th-century casements are in the corresponding position on the ground floor, the second from the left replacing a former doorway. The porch has a central 20th-century panelled door in a 19th-century wooden pedimented surround. A Salop Fire Insurance plate, numbered 2129, is located above the door. A prominent ridge stack has been rebuilt in 19th-century brown brick to the left of the porch, and there is an integral end stack to the right.

The interior reveals the timber frame throughout. A massive former central stack has stone inglenook fireplaces on either side; the left fireplace has an ogee stop to the chamfered segmental wooden lintel, and the right fireplace has a simpler chamfered wooden lintel. A plank door on the right side of the stack suggests the presence of a former small lobby. There is a chamfered spine beam with ogee stops to the left ground-floor room, and chamfered ceiling beams to the former right (now centre) room. This room has an infilled doorway with a segmental wooden lintel to the right wall (the former right gable end). Wide-boarded floorboards are on the first floor. The original centre truss to the left of the stack has raking struts from the tie beam to the principal rafter, partially obscured by the stack, suggesting the chimney may be a later insertion. A collar and tie beam truss is located in the former right gable end.