Cousland Smithy Cottage

Cousland Smithy Cottage

Late 18th century smiddy with adjoining early 19th century blacksmith's cottage, set within a small complex that formerly included a wheelwright's house (now ruinous). The smithy is a single-storey, 4-bay rectangular building with a circa 1940 brick lean-to extension to the east. The cottage is a 3-bay rectangular structure with a rear gabled extension adjoining to the west.

The smiddy is built of random rubble with some rubble quoins, timber lintels and flat ashlar skews. The principal south elevation features a pair of timber boarded doors within a full-height doorway, topped with a corrugated metal canopy that breaks through the eaves. A large fixed light window with smaller windows adjacent stands to the right of the doorway, with a low fixed light window to the left flanked by a cast-iron trough and pal stone. The west elevation adjoins the cottage gable. The north (rear) elevation has small windows to the right and a large window off centre left, with a lower extension featuring a catslide roof to the far left and a blind end with window to the right return. The east elevation presents a blind gable with stack adjoining the brick lean-to; it contains two widely spaced irregular windows and a full-height pair of sliding corrugated metal doors to the left return. The smiddy windows are fixed lights of varying size with mullions holding small square panes of joiner's glazing, timber lintels, and no sills or astragals; rear windows include 2-pane and single-pane fixed lights and a large window matching the front. The piended pan-tiled roof features open eaves with exposed beams and rafters, and 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 stand at each gablehead with stone neck copes and replacement cans.

The smiddy interior comprises a large room with exposed whitewashed stone walls and a whitewashed brick fireplace with wide hearth to the east. Exposed rafters and beams remain, with timber and cobble flooring. Various wooden workbenches and shelving survive, along with metal anvils and tools.

The cottage is built of random rubble with ashlar long and short quoins, sills and steps, and timber lintel to the rear door; it is harled to the front with painted margins. The principal south elevation has a central door with a boarded door and 2-pane fanlight above. The west elevation shows the gable end with stone skews and short brick stack, with a later rubble and brick lean-to featuring a corrugated metal roof conjoining 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 has a small window in the gable end, a blind return to the left, an entrance door and small window to the right return, and larger windows to the flanks on the main cottage body, with a low rubble garden wall with shaped copes adjoining to the right. The east elevation presents a gable end with gablehead stack adjoining the lower smiddy. The cottage has 12-pane timber sash and case windows to the front with internal shuttering, 9-pane and single fixed pane windows to the rear. The piended pantiled roof features brick skews to the rear gable end and stone skews to the main cottage. Brick stacks have projecting stone neck copes and plain cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

The cottage interior retains a centrally placed half-panelled hall with principal rooms leading off each side and a small bedroom to the rear. A scullery runs along the central passage, almost entirely intact, with Belfast sink and wash tank. Late 19th century cast-iron fires survive (one with tiled surround), and an early 20th century tiled surround surrounds the living room fire. Original timber shuttering and floors remain.

The smithy predates the adjacent cottage. It has low eaves and a high, wide entrance designed to admit horses if necessary, with large fixed front windows to admit light. Unusually, this smithy remains in working order and continues to be used as a wrought-iron workshop, retaining a good range of older tools both in the smithy and the later workshop area. The cottage, built in the early 19th century to house the blacksmith, is well preserved with original fittings intact and an almost untouched scullery to the rear. Adjacent to the cottage stand the remains of the wheelwright's house, a two-roomed structure that formerly housed a family in each room sharing a central open chimney used for both heating and cooking; it is now roofless, though original fenestration and doorways remain visible. Behind all three properties lies garden ground once stocked with fruit and vegetables for the residents and workers.

Outside the smithy entrance a large circular stone survives upon which the wheelwright used to shoe wheels. A relocated cast-iron trough from Dalkeith Foundry dating to 1845 is also present. Historically, the smithy serviced most of the farms in the area. The later brick extension houses colliery workshop machine tools and a lawn mower blade sharpener, themselves good survivors of an almost bygone industrial era.