The Old Forge

The Old Forge is a house, originally two cottages, dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, with modernisations around 1970. It is constructed of plastered local stone and flint rubble, with some cob, the plaster being lightly incised to resemble ashlar. The stacks are stone rubble with plastered brick chimneyshafts and the roof is thatched. The building has an L-shaped plan. The main block, facing north, has a two-room plan with a central through-passage and gable-end stacks. A single-room extension, likely from the early 18th century, projects forward at a right angle in front of the east room, overlapping it slightly and being unheated. In the 19th century, the building was divided into two cottages by a partition, creating two narrow passages. In the 20th century, the east room’s original passage partition was removed to enlarge the room, and the cottages were reunited. The main front has a roughly symmetrical two-window arrangement of 20th-century casement windows, some with aluminium frames. The centrally placed doorway has a circa 1960 brick two-centred arch and a contemporary plank door. The front block's roof is gable-ended and hipped. At the rear are several 19th-century casement windows with round-headed lights and glazing bars. The interior largely reflects 20th-century modernisation, with limited early carpentry detail visible. The left room of the main block retains a chamfered crossbeam with scroll-stopped stops, and the front block has a chamfered axial beam with runout stops. The fireplaces have been blocked with 20th-century grates. The roof was not inspected, and no trusses are visible on the first floor.