Langtons Forge

Langtons Forge is a house with a forge, dating from the 18th century with 20th-century alterations. It is located on Sandpit Lane, Pilgrims Hatch, Brentwood. The building is constructed of red brick with a peg-tiled mansard roof, and has a brick stack at each gable end.

The building has a rectangular plan and is one and a half storeys high. The front elevation has two bays, with a central door and two dormers with sloping roofs over the lower windows. The house windows are 20th-century casements with diamond lattice panes, with the ground floor windows being two-light with an upper light, and the dormers having two-lights. The front door is a 20th-century boarded door with a central light and ironwork. The forge section also has a peg-tiled, pitched roof, and three 20th-century three-light casement windows with segmental heads and diamond lattice panes. A simple projecting lean-to is located at the north end, with brick rendering, colour washing, a slate roof, and a two-light casement window. The rear, east-facing elevation shows the forge projecting slightly, and both parts of the building have pilaster buttresses. The house has two two-light casements with a top light, and one single-light casement. The forge has two two-light casements with a top light and a central French window, all with diamond panes. The lean-to at the north end features a 20th-century boarded door with a central diamond-paned light, and a single casement window. The south end has a 20th-century French window with side lights and diamond panes. The north end elevation has a lean-to with two two-light casement windows, and a single casement window above in a rendered and colour-washed end wall.

The interior of the house was refurbished in the 20th century. The forge was entirely renewed in 1947, and the house interior has also been considerably renewed. Two original principal joists remain: a binding joist with lambs' tongue chamfer stops and a bridging joist, which is more massive and appears to be earlier. Common joists are attached to the bridging joist and have carpenters' assembly marks, matching each other except that the common joists are not in perfect order. These assembly marks are of an earlier style than the house's date, suggesting the joists may have been reused from elsewhere. The south end of the forge was slightly lengthened in the 20th-century refurbishment, and a diagonal mark on the roof indicates that it was originally hipped.