The Forge,Forge Cottage And Horshoe Cottage

The Forge, Forge Cottage and Horseshoe Cottage form a complex of house and forge, now subdivided into three dwellings, on the west side of Much Hadham High Street.

The building is of timber frame construction, plastered and weatherboarded in places, with steep pitched tile roofs and gabled ends. It began as a circa 15th-century south crosswing, to which were added a circa early 16th-century hall and north crosswing. The plan is H-shaped: the south crosswing contains The Forge, the hall contains Forge Cottage, and the north crosswing is Horseshoe Cottage. The south crosswing is independent of and predates the early 16th-century open hall with high end north crosswing.

Around 1600 the hall was floored over, the house was reroofed, brick axial stacks were inserted between the hall and north crosswing and on the south side of the south crosswing, the crosswings were extended at the rear, and a stair tower was added at the rear of the hall. Around the mid-17th century, another crosswing was built on the south side of the existing south crosswing, and a forge wing at the rear dating from the 17th to 19th centuries.

The exterior is two storeys with an asymmetrical five-window front. The jettied and gabled crosswings project to left and right, with a third weatherboarded crosswing on the left. Windows include 2, 3 and 4-light 19th and 20th-century casements, 19th-century 8 and 20-pane sashes on the ground floor, and an original doorway left of centre. The south side has 19th-century 16-pane sashes and 20th-century casements. The forge to the west has circa 18th-century iron casements with leaded panes and plank doors. The rear elevation is gabled; the right-hand gable displays exposed timber-framing and a circa 18th-century 4-light casement. A 20th-century garage and wing are set back on the right.

The interior contains notable features. The front room of the original south crosswing (The Forge) preserves a fragment of fine late 16th-century wall painting depicting a man, woman and dog, part of a larger scheme that may survive beneath later paint; a shadow of Royal Arms appears on the back wall. The room above has a vase of flowers stencilled upside down on the wall. Ceiling beams are chamfered with cyma and hollow step stops, and some joists are exposed. Some wall framing is exposed.

The north wing (Horseshoe Cottage) retains a square crown-post on a cambered tie-beam with one brace to the collar-purlin. Circa 1600 replacement side purlin roofs are present. The stairs at the rear of the hall (Forge Cottage) feature a 17th-century octagonal newel with finial. The stairs at the rear of the south crosswing (The Forge) have a 17th-century newel with small ball finial. A 17th-century panelled door stands at the foot of the stairs at the rear of the north crosswing (Horseshoe Cottage). The forge in the rear south-west wing contains two hearths and bellows positioned in a narrow bellows-room bay.