19th century forge and stable near Old Forge, Duton Hill (EHER 49300)

The property known as Old Forge consists of a series of timber-framed outbuildings that formerly belonged to the adjacent cottage of the same name which is listed at Grade II and dated by Historic England to the early 19th century.

2019. Building survey. The property known as Old Forge consists of a series of timber-framed outbuildings that formerly belonged to the adjacent cottage of the same name which is listed at Grade II and dated by Historic England to the early 19th century. The site lies in the hamlet of Duton Hill approximately 1 km north of Great Easton village and was marked as a forge on late 19th century maps with the house used as a Post Office at the beginning of the 20th century. The property was depicted on the one inch Ordnance Survey of 1805 but not Chapman and Andre’s map of 1777, and an origin of about 1800 is consistent with the listing and the earliest fabric of the outbuildings. At the time of the 1839 tithe survey it included approximately four acres of adjoining pasture land and was leased by Ann Turner, who may have been the mother of George Turner - the one blacksmith in Great Easton recorded in White’s Directory for 1848. The premises were described only as 'yard and outbuildings' but the land on the opposite side of the road was named as Blacksmiths Field, and George Turner was listed as both a smith and carrier in the 1855 Post Office Directory. The outbuildings are understood to have been sold separately from the house in the 1950s or 60s, with the present owner of the former in possession since about 2000. The cement-rendered forge adjoining the road has largely collapsed leaving only fragments of its walls standing. The right-hand (south-eastern) gable survives from about 1800 with large areas of prick-pattern external pargeting protected within a lean-to extension, but the rest appears to have been rebuilt in the mid 19th century (possibly when the lean-to was added), and extensively rebuilt again in the mid to late 20th century. No historic fixtures or fittings survive and the building would not be recognisable as a forge without documentary evidence. An outbuilding lay to the rear in 1839 but this was replaced in about 1870 with the present weatherboarded structure which is known as a barn but was in fact built as a stable with a loft and four loose boxes entered from an enclosed yard behind the forge. This stable was presumably designed for the horses of the blacksmith’s carrier business which would have been pastured in the adjoining four-acre paddock. It too was largely rebuilt in softwood during the 20th century and its internal partitions and loft removed, leaving little of historic significance. An adjoining late 20th century stable to the rear of this structure retains a small fragment of another mid 19th century building on the site. <1>