Forge Cottages Forge House

This is a row of cottages, originally a single house, located on King Street in West Malling. The core of the building is a 16th-century lobby-entrance house that was refronted in the 19th century. The construction is timber-framed, with plaster over a matchboard frame featuring a diamond pattern on a cemented plinth. The roof is tiled, half-hipped, with a clustered stack positioned off-centre, along with end external brick stacks. The structure is two storeys and attics, featuring six windows. A gabled dormer with a casement window is present in the attic. Most of the first-floor windows are 19th-century casements, but there are also two 4-light mullioned and transomed oriels supported by brackets. The ground floor has a 16-pane sash window, two 19th-century casements, a mullioned and transomed window, and modern garage doors. Number 10 has a 20th-century six-panelled door with glazed upper panels; Number 14 features a plain door. The left side elevation is weatherboarded. The rear elevation of Number 10 is rendered and includes a shingled lean-to with a slate roof.

Inside Number 10, the living room features a large open fireplace with a roll-moulded beam, a 16th-century spine beam with a 2-inch chamfer and lamb's tongue stop, and three iron rungs in the corner, which may be the remains of a fixed ladder to the upper floor. The first floor has 16th-century oak floorboards and internal diamond mullioned windows. The roof structure incorporates collar beams and through purlins, and wattle and daub is reported in the attic. A 16th-century door is also present. 18th-century pine panelling exists on the first floor. The former forge, now a garage, retains kick boards for horses. Number 12 displays a spine beam with a 2-inch chamfer and lamb's tongue stops, along with 19th-century matchboard panelling, and an 18th-century winder staircase. Outside, between numbers 10 and 14, there is a section of stone cobbles.