Forge Green (Former Workhouse)

This is a former workhouse, dating from approximately 1828, and later altered in the mid-19th century for Dalston Parish. It was designed by Thomas Martin of Dalston. The building is constructed of coursed squared red sandstone with quoins, painted stone dressings, ridge and gable chimneys, and a Westmorland slate roof.

The building is arranged around an irregular courtyard, with a central L-shaped range and an enclosed garden to the rear. An entrance courtyard is enclosed by a tall perimeter wall that supports an attached outbuilding.

The north elevation, which is the front of the building, is two storeys high with four bays, and a single bay advanced wing to the right. A central doorway has a quoined surround and a 20th-century door, flanked by two over two pane sash windows in painted surrounds. Above these are three similar windows. The right-hand end bay features a two-light first-floor casement window above a blocked opening, mirroring the design of the advanced wing, which has a doorway with a painted surround below an upper-floor casement. The rear elevation, facing the enclosed garden, has six bays with four ground-floor windows, all two over two pane sashes. There are also six matching windows on the upper floor, along with a central doorway with a 20th-century multi-pane glazed door. An attached wall, including a doorway, extends westward to join the perimeter wall enclosing the former workhouse site on the west, north, and east sides. This wall runs for approximately 29 metres on the east side and 12 metres in either direction from the entrance on the north side. The wall is built of coursed sandstone, with the south wall having shallow-pitched copings. The gate piers are square with shallow pyramidal caps. To the right of the entrance, a long, single-storeyed outbuilding is built on the inner side of the wall. A section of the wall extends approximately 12 metres west from the northwest corner, incorporating a pair of earth closets that project beyond the wall.

The interior of the building has not been inspected.

The Dalston Workhouse was built on land granted in 1803, during the enclosure of the village's common land. It was constructed by Henry Tiffen of Buckabank at a cost of £400, and it appears to have had a relatively short life as a workhouse, with only 17 inmates in 1828. In 1838, responsibility for the workhouse was taken over by the Carlisle Union.

This is a small-scale, purpose-built parish workhouse dating from 1828, predating the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the subsequent development of larger institutions across England.