The Old Forge

The Old Forge is a house, later divided into two dwellings, dating from the early 16th century. It underwent alterations in the mid-17th century and again in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is timber-framed, with plaster infill, and has a thatched roof. Originally, it was a small, two-bay open hall, with a storeyed service or solar bay, to which a parlour bay was added, creating a three-cell, cross-passage plan. The house is now two storeys high. The main entrance is in the cross passage, featuring a boarded door and a 20th-century gabled porch. A second entrance is located in the parlour bay to the left. There are scattered 19th- and 20th-century casement windows, with ground floor hoodboards. A rebuilt axial ridge stack was inserted into the upper bay of the hall. Pantiled lean-to outshuts with attic casements are situated above the gable ends. A rear entrance provides access to the former cross passage and to a service-end lean-to outshut. A single-storey, 19th-century pantiled outbuilding extends behind the parlour, featuring a truncated external stack and a pantiled lean-to oven outshut to the rear. Inside, the hall displays peg holes for a screen at the lower end, two early doorways, and a panelled door leading to the service rooms. It also has an inserted stop-chamfered cross axial binding beam, diamond mullion mortices, a cambered tie beam, smoke-blackened rafters, and an altered roof. The parlour showcases reverse curved bracing in the walling, a braced tie beam, and cambered collars clasping purlins.