The Forge

The Forge is a house dating to approximately the late 15th or early 16th century, with extensions from the early 17th and 18th centuries and later alterations and extensions in the 20th century. It is timber-framed with painted brick infilling, and has a clay plain tile roof with gabled ends and catslides over outshuts. A brick lateral stack is located on the side of the cross-wing.

The original plan comprised one surviving bay of a late Medieval open hall, truncated at the southwest end, with an early 17th-century cross-wing built onto the northeast end. In the 18th century, the front of the cross-wing was faced in brick, and a small outshut was added to the northeast side. 20th-century outshuts were built to the rear (southeast).

The asymmetrical northwest front has two bays. The right-hand side is timber-framed with a tension-brace, brick infilling and a two-light casement window. The projecting cross-wing to the left has a painted brick gable and an outshut on its left side, featuring a plank door, three-light casement windows with glazing bars, cambered brick arches on both ground and first floors and a doorway with a glazed and panelled door. Above the doorway is an 18th-century moulded canopy supported on shaped brackets. The rear (southeast) shows a rendered timber-frame gable of the cross-wing, with the roof extending over 20th-century outshuts; the right-hand outshut continues around the side of the cross-wing.

Inside, the front room of the cross-wing has a chamfered axial beam with hollow-step or cyma stops and a 20th-century brick chimneypiece. A partition to the passage is made from reused 17th-century panelling, with a 17th-century panelled door and another 17th-century door opposite. A ground-floor room in the original main range has a chamfered axial beam without stops and unchamfered joists. The chambers in the cross-wing also have chamfered axial beams with hollow-step or cyma stops and exposed joists. Jowled storey-posts and exposed wall-framing are visible in the cross-wing. An 18th-century chimneypiece is located in a fireplace in the front chamber of the cross-wing. Plank doors are original features. The roof over the main southwest range, consisting of one surviving bay, exhibits smoke-blackened common-rafter couples, purlins and wind-braces, along with smoke-blackened plaster infilling to the southwest gable. The roof of the cross-wing is inaccessible.