Smithy, Cousland

Smithy and Cottage, Cousland

A late 18th-century smithy with an adjoining early 19th-century blacksmith's cottage, together forming an important survival of rural industrial and domestic architecture.

The smithy is a single-storey, four-bay rectangular building constructed of random rubble with some rubble quoins, timber lintels and flat ashlar skews. A brick lean-to extension was added to the east around 1940. The principal (south) elevation features a pair of timber boarded doors within a full-height doorway topped by a corrugated metal canopy that breaks through the eaves—a feature reflecting the need to admit horses. A large fixed light window and a smaller window sit to the right of the doorway, with a low fixed light window to the left, below which is a cast-iron trough and pal stone. The west elevation adjoins the cottage gable. The north (rear) elevation has a small window to the right and a large window off-centre left, with a lower extension featuring a catslide roof to the far left and a window to the right return. The east elevation is a blind gable with a stack adjoining the brick lean-to; it has two widely spaced irregular windows and a full-height pair of sliding corrugated metal doors to the left return. The smithy's windows are fixed with mullions holding small square panes of joiner's glazing, with timber lintels but no sills or astragals. The rear has two-pane and single-pane fixed windows. The building is roofed with piended pan tiles on open eaves with exposed beams and rafters, and includes a corrugated Perspex roof light to the rear. A corrugated door porch to the front has a single gutter draining directly onto the roof, with no rainwater goods to the rest of the structure. Brick stacks at each gablehead feature stone neck copes and replacement cans.

The interior of the smithy comprises a large room with exposed whitewashed stone walls and a whitewashed brick fireplace with wide hearth to the east. Wooden workbenches, shelving, metal anvils and tools remain in situ. The ceiling features exposed rafters and beams, and the flooring combines timber and cobbles.

The cottage is a three-bay rectangular structure built of random rubble with ashlar long and short quoins, sills and steps. The front is harled with painted margins. The principal (south) elevation has a central door with a boarded door and two-pane fanlight above. The west elevation is a gable end with stone skews and a short brick stack, adjoining a later rubble and brick lean-to with corrugated metal roof that connects the cottage to the remains of a wheelwright's house. The north (rear) elevation is almost T-plan in form due to a lower projecting gable-ended scullery and porch. It includes a small window in the gable end, a blind return to the left, and an entrance door with small window to the right return; larger windows flank the main cottage. A low rubble garden wall with shaped copes adjoins to the right. The east elevation is a gable end with a gablehead stack, adjoining the lower smithy. The cottage features 12-pane timber sash and case windows to the front with internal shuttering, and 9-pane and single fixed-pane windows to the rear. The roof is piended pantile with brick skews to the rear gable end and stone skews to the main cottage. Brick stacks have projecting stone neck copes and plain cans, with cast-iron rainwater goods throughout.

The cottage interior retains its original character with a centrally placed, half-panelled hall opening to principal rooms either side and a small bedroom to the rear. The scullery along the central passage is almost intact, preserving a Belfast sink and wash tank. Late 19th-century cast-iron fires (one with tiled surround) and an early 20th-century tiled surround to the living room survive, along with original timber shuttering and floors.

The smithy is earlier than the adjacent cottage and was designed to accommodate working conditions requiring high, wide entrance doors to admit horses and large fixed front windows for natural light. It remains unusual in retaining active use as a wrought-iron workshop, preserving a good range of older tools. The cottage housed the blacksmith and is well preserved with original fittings and an almost untouched scullery. Adjacent stands the remnant of a wheelwright's house, now roofless but retaining original fenestration and doorways; it formerly housed a family in each of two rooms sharing a central open chimney used for cooking. Behind all three properties lies garden ground that once supplied fruit and vegetables for the inhabitants. Outside the smithy entrance stands a large circular stone used by the wheelwright for shoeing wheels, and a relocated cast-iron trough from Dalkeith Foundry dated 1845. The smithy historically serviced most local farms, and its tools remain on display. The later brick extension houses colliery workshop machine tools and a lawn mower blade sharpener, themselves survivors of an almost bygone industrial era.