The Old Blacksmith's Shop

A blacksmith’s shop of mid-C19 date with an attached early C20 pigsty.

MATERIALS: constructed of red brick, local rubble stone and flint with timber roof structures covered in slate and a timber loft. The forge is constructed of brick with a brick chimney. The iron anvil is mounted on a stone block. There are fitted timber workbenches to the walls. Most of the windows have metal frames and chamfered brick architraves. The rear window is of timber. The floors are earthen with some areas overlaid in poured concrete. The loft is boarded.

PLAN: built on a north-east/ south-west alignment and facing south-east it is arranged as a single-room smithy with an entrance from the adjacent open-fronted workshop area, which is lofted above. To the rear is a lean-to pigsty with a separate entrance and a walled enclosure.

DESCRIPTION: the principal elevation has a cart opening to the left and two wide window openings to the right under cambered brick heads, chamfered architraves and metal frames. The end and rear elevations are of rubblestone and flint with brick banding. The south end has a small loft opening to the gable, the north end has a wide metal-framed window. To the rear left is a lean-to pigsty and to the right is a two-light opening to the rear of the smithy and a walled enclosure with concrete trough. The smithy interior is open to the roof and has a brick forge set forward from the back wall with an anvil and block to its left. There are workbenches fixed to each wall and a loft opening, accessed by a ladder, to the right of the plank entrance door. The forge has all its operational components and there are electrical fittings to the room. The two queen post roof trusses have struts, high collars and iron straps. There are two rows of purlins.