Old Forge

The Old Forge is a late 16th-century house, extended in the late 17th century, originally comprising two dwellings and a forge. It is located on Barkway High Street. The building is timber-framed, with sections of the frame exposed and the rest rendered, and has a tiled roof. The original plan was a three-bay through-passage layout, with a further bay added to the right. It is two storeys high and has a continuously projecting upper floor. On the ground floor, an entrance is located between the two left bays, with a plank door set within an original depressed four-centred arched surround, featuring ovolo moulding and flower buds in the spandrels. The left bay has an original projecting ovolo moulded mullion and transom oriel window with eight lights, including returns. To the right of the entrance are a two-light casement with a hood board, a 12-pane horizontal sliding sash window, and a 19th-century mullion and transom oriel window marking the former forge. The jetty has curved braces to the main bearers, with bull nosed joists. The first floor displays exposed close studding, with four 24-pane flush frame horizontal sliding sash windows and sprocket eaves. Exposed plates and purlins are visible at the left end, with small casements on the right end. The roof has a catslide profile, leading to a rear lean-to outshut faced with red brick, with a rebuilt stack to the rear right where the original block meets the early additions. Behind the left or parlour bay is an original large external stack with tiled offsets and a rebuilt cap. Attached to the rear of this is a 19th-century weatherboarded, slate-roofed single-storey outshut. A 20th-century single-storey lean-to is located to the rear centre, with two-light casements above. Inside, the ground floor parlour retains some 17th-century panelling, original three-light ovolo moulded window frames with diagonal mullions flanking the oriel, and a partly rebuilt inglenook. Stop-chamfered bearers and joists, along with jowled posts, are present. On the first floor, above the parlour, there is more 17th-century panelling and a re-used 15th-century ovolo moulded bearer with foliate stops. Other interior features include curved passing tension braces, jowled posts, and curved wind braces to a clasped purlin roof. The house originally had gables fronting each of the four bays.