Hodgsons Cottage And Attached Smithy

Hodgons Cottage is a house with an attached warehouse (now a shop) and a smithy, probably dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, with the smithy likely added in the 18th century. It has been altered over time. The building is constructed of roughly-coursed rubble stone with quoins, and has a stone slate roof. It is set back from the road.

The main part of the cottage has a T-shaped plan with a single-depth, two-unit range facing west, to which a one-unit warehouse is projected to the left, and a one-unit smithy attached to the north gable. The main range is two storeys high and has a facade of 1:2 windows. It features a square-headed doorway abutting the wing, a part-glazed door, two four-pane sash windows on each floor, and corbelled square chimneys at both the right-hand and left-hand gables (the left-hand chimney is cut down, but visible from the smithy loft). The wing’s re-entrant side has a square-headed doorway with a board door, a four-pane fixed square window to the left, and a six-pane fixed window above. The wing’s gable wall has a tall twelve-pane fixed window, offset to the right, on the first floor, which was likely formerly a loading doorway, and a corbelled square chimney. The rear of the cottage has renewed sash windows on both floors.

Inside the house, the interior has been modernised. The warehouse retains a flagged floor, a stone fireplace, a small pantry in the rear left corner, and a quarter-turn stone staircase in the rear right-hand corner. The upper floor is open to the roof.

The smithy, located at the left end, is of two low storeys and two windows, with a monopitched slate roof attached at first-floor level. It has a large doorway offset to the right and two small windows above. The rear wall, built of mixed random rubble, has a doorway with a wooden lintel and a board door with strap hinges, a six-pane fixed window to the right, and a narrow four-pane window above. The smithy's interior features a pair of large chamfered beams and contains a complete, fully-equipped smithy with a forge, bellows, anvil, and tools, which were still in use in the 1970s.

The building adjoins Beech Hill Cottage and is part of an important group of buildings facing the Church of St Andrew.