The Forge

The Forge is a house dating from around 1500, originally an open hall house. A floor was inserted around 1600, and the northern bay was heightened, with the chimney rebuilt in brick during the 18th century. The building has a timber frame that is roughcast, topped with steep old red tile roofs. It is 1½ storeys tall and faces west, with the northern part being higher and featuring a large chimney that spans the change in height.

The central area of the house is the hall, which was originally open to the roof and has a cross-passage at its northern end. The southern bay likely served as a parlour at the upper end of the hall and was originally unheated. The service rooms were probably located in the northern bay, which was either heightened or rebuilt in the 16th or early 17th century to create a new parlour end. The inserted floor in the hall likely came with a timber-framed fire-hood, which was later replaced by a brick chimney with a stair leading to the rear (east) in the 18th century.

The west front features a plank door beneath a gabled tiled hood, leading into the lower part of the house near the chimney. There are three flush casement windows with rectangular leaded lights on the ground floor, along with three gabled dormers at the eaves. Inside, the building showcases an exposed frame with close-spaced studs, axial floor beams, jowled posts, and heavy straight tension braces that are recessed at the back of the studs.