Farm Building (Former Charcoal Store) Of Furnace Farm, About 50 Metres North West Of Oakdale House

This building is a former charcoal store for an iron furnace, now used as a farm building. It dates from the 17th century or earlier, with later alterations, including changes made in 1984. The structure is made of roughly squared and coursed reddish stone, with a thin layer of yellowish stone at the top quarter of the wall, but it lacks buttresses. The roof is made of corrugated asbestos on a steel frame.

The building has four bays. The facade facing the road features a plain plinth, which is at ground level on the right and higher on the left due to the slope of the ground. There are square-set buttresses with a single offset just below the eaves. The first bay has five small square holes, while the second bay contains a three-light mullioned window on the left and three square holes above it, with a door-frame on the right that is infilled with a two-light mullion and transom window at the upper level. The third and fourth bays have six square holes, and the end buttresses have been removed.

On the left return, there is a high plinth with buttresses at the corners and a wide central doorway, approximately 2.1 meters high, featuring a rebate in the stonework for doors and a flat timber lintel. To the right of this doorway is a square window at the same level, with two rows of four small square holes above. The low-pitched gable added in 1984 oversails the wall. The right return has a wide opening that has been partially rebuilt in 20th-century brickwork.

The interior has been gutted, but there is evidence of an upper floor at the left end, with a cross wall in the center of the second bay. This building is said to be the former charcoal store of a 17th-century iron works, although its earlier use is unclear. It has since been converted into a farm building. The previous roof was half-hipped and tiled but was removed in 1984. This structure is an important remnant of pre-Industrial Revolution iron works and is the only known 17th-century charcoal store still in existence. It forms a group with the former blowing house and Oakdale House nearby.