The Old Forge

The Old Forge is a house and forge that have been combined into one residence. The building dates back to the 16th century, with the forge added around 1700 and a brick front added in the mid-19th century. It features a timber frame resting on a red brick sill, with infill made of red brick from various periods. The front has been rebuilt in red brick and is colourwashed in red. The roof is steep and covered with old red tiles.

This structure consists of three bays and one and a half storeys, originally an open hall house, set back from the road and facing east. Inside, there are structural closed partitions that define the longer hall bay, with chamfered and stopped joists and an axial beam in the northern parlour bay. The southern bay remains open to the roof, and the tall timber-framed forge building extends to the rear, enclosing the northwest corner of the house.

The mid-19th century brick front features a short gabled projection in the middle, with a door to the right and a window beyond it. There is a window on each floor of the projection and a gabled dormer on the right-hand side. A tall later 17th-century brick chimney with a corbelled top is located on the ridge, a third of the way from the southern end. The building has three-light lattice leaded casement windows set under cambered gauged red brick arches.

At the rear, the exposed frame shows wide spaced studs, with irregular windows and gabled dormers at the eaves. The entrance is through a battened door located at the angle of the wings, leading into the forge, which is protected by a tiled pentice that extends over a rectangular 20th-century bay window. This former forge has dark weatherboarding on the gable and a large external gable chimney. There is also a chimney from the 18th or 19th century on the northern external gable of the house.

Inside, the hall bay features a chamfered and stopped beam, while the inserted floor has plain squared joists. There is a large open fireplace with a 16th-century unclassical reeding-moulded lintel that is jointed into a timber upright at the western end. The roof has clasped purlins with straight braces and jowled posts, and the wallplate shows an edge-halved scarf joint. The parlour has a wooden floor, but there is no cellar. The front door now opens directly into the parlour.