Former Smithy To Old Forge

The Former Smithy to Old Forge, also known as the Blue Boar Smithy, is a forge building located in Chiddingstone, dating from the late 17th century to the early 18th century. The south section of the building is constructed of red brick, while the north section is timber framed, possibly older but altered over time. The roof is covered with clay plain tiles, featuring Horsham slabs below the ridge on the eastern pitch.

The south elevation has a central doorway with a brick-on-edge head leading to a ledged door, which is fitted with long smith's hinges. Above the cambered brick head of a pair of boarded vehicular doors is a boarded south gable with a weathervane. The rear elevation includes a small square window opening with a wooden boarded shutter. Inside, there are two bays with stepped and chamfered beams, and the roof features pegged rafters and butt purlins.

A timber framed and weatherboarded cross-wing connects the north and south wings, with the cross-wing containing a pair of ledged doors and a 19th-century roof with an internal wooden ridge-piece. The north wing is also timber framed and weatherboarded, with a clay plain tile roof and a red brick stack for the forge. The main hipped roof runs east-west, sloping low to the north over a later outshut. The west elevation includes a single light window for the north outshut, a three-light window, and a pair of ledged doors.

Inside the north wing, the east end of the south wall retains its frame with a brace and fenestration, with mortises in the wall-plate. The framing in the east wall of the original wing has been partly replaced with some English bond brickwork and later fenestration. Studwork from the original north wall has been removed and renewed in the west wall, and the roof features clasped purlins. The brick forge hearth and bellows are still present.

This forge serves as an outbuilding to the house across the street, known as Old Forge, which has a date stone of 1745 and was previously called the Blue Boar Inn. The smithy is marked on early 20th-century Ordnance Survey maps, and the layout of the north and south wings, which are not linked, is depicted on Henry Streatfield's estate map of 1765 for Manor Farm in the Parish of Chiddingstone.