The Forge, John Street, Randalstown, Antrim, Co Antrim

The Forge, John Street, Randalstown

This is a smithy dating from the late Victorian era, built between 1880 and 1899. It is a plain but clearly proportioned single-storey building of three bays with a gabled roof and a lower rear return. The building is of particular interest because it retains its original hearth and canopy to the interior, making it a good example of a late Victorian or Edwardian smithy.

The main entrance faces west. The entrance elevation is covered with a roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with dark toned ridge tiles. A single red brick chimney with a projecting brick cornice and two modern red pots rises from the south gable. The walls are constructed of basalt rubble with red brick block quoins and dressings to the openings, with a projecting brick eaves course. The masonry has been repointed in cement. The elevation is symmetrical, comprising a window to each side of a central entrance. The windows are modern timber small-paned replacement casements, now covered with new rectangular sheeted timber shutters on iron hinges, set within deep concrete lintels and projecting concrete cills. The entrance consists of a semi-circular brick archway with chamfered reveals, containing an arched ledged timber door flanked by arched plate glass sidelights; this woodwork is new. Cast iron gutters and downpipes are present.

The north gable has similar basalt rubble walling with smooth cement rendered strips to the verges. It contains a ground floor window larger than those on the entrance elevation, with a small circular brick dressed opening at the apex of the gable, now blocked with cement render. The rear elevation of the front block has a slated roof and similar walling, though the cement pointing is of cruder quality. A cast iron gutter is present but the downpipe is now missing. One rectangular timber ledged door in a recessed red brick block surround with a concrete doorstep is positioned to the right-hand side. A window to the left of the doorway, with brick dressing and concrete lintel and cill, is boarded up.

The rear return projects at the left-hand side, with a roof slated as the front block. A chimney of similar style to the front block rises from the gable. The walls are of red brick with a projecting eaves course and smooth rendered strips to the gable verges. Cast iron gutters and downpipe are present. One window in each side wall has concrete lintels and cills; the one on the north side is boarded up, while the one on the south side has sheeted external shutters as previously described.

The south gable of the front block has similar basalt rubble walling to the entrance front, though cement pointing is smeared over much of the stonework. Two small segmental brick arched openings, now blocked with red brick, are positioned near the base of the wall, with red brickwork rising above them to converge at the apex of the gable below the chimney. One brick to the right-hand breast is inscribed 'Annadale Brick Co Ltd Works, Ormeau Road, Belfast', although it is set upside down.

The building was constructed as a blacksmith's forge and is shown on the 1903 Ordnance Survey map marked as a smithy. It closed as a forge in 1983 and was subsequently occupied by a light engineering business until 1992. The building was sold in 1992 by Shane's Castle Estates Company to the Department of the Environment Roads Service with the intention to demolish it and incorporate the site into a public car park. The building was listed in 1992. A later lean-to block to the south was demolished between 1992 and 1994. The building was sold to its present owners in 1995 but remained vacant and was described as derelict by 1997. It was refurbished in 1998. The building is not recorded in the Industrial Heritage Record.

The building stands detached within a car park in the built-up area of the town, bordered by a pavement of concrete brick paving with tarmac parking spaces and car park access roads surrounding it. The car park is located to the rear of the two main streets in the town and is overlooked mainly by the rear of buildings.