Summary
House, C18 with later alterations and additions.
Reasons for Designation
Forge House is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a building which retains a significant proportion of its original fabric and whose early character and subsequent evolution is legible, internally and externally, in key aspects of its structure, form, materials and detail;
Historic interest:
* as an c18 house with later phases, including an early-C19 re-fronting.
History
Forge House is believed to date to the C18, with early-C19, and subsequent, alterations.
The house is of brick construction, the scored stucco to its front elevation probably dates to the early C19. Evidence of internal remodelling and extension includes C19 and C20 phases. Internal alterations include some degree of remodelling, or possibly relocation, of the stair, and by extension the first-floor landing.
A notice of sale by auction appeared in the Kentish Gazette on 13 June 1843, for a building which is probably Forge House*; this states the ‘general business of a country shopkeeper’ is, and has ‘for many years’, been carried on from the house. Certainly, the building was used for commercial purposes in the C20, with the addition of a small extension to the west, dating to around the mid-C20, occupied as a shop and Post Office and now absorbed into the living accommodation of the house. A further extension to the rear was added in the late-C20.
To the east of Forge House is the building believed to have been the forge for which the house is named. The Tithe and census records from 1841 indicate that at this date the house and forge were in separate ownership, both in domestic occupation. Otherwise, little is known of the relationship between the buildings in terms of use and ownership until to the late C20 when they are known to have been united in single ownership. The forge now serves as ancillary storage space for the house (2022).
* Two plots were advertised for sale under the same notice: 'a substantial built freehold messuage or tenement... now in the occupation of Mr James Hinkley' and 'a small freehold farm'. The 1841 Census lists a James Hinkley as a farmer in Molash and the Tithe of the same year gives the owner and occupier of both Forge House and the small farm immediately to the east of the forge as a James Inkley, a probable misspelling of Hinkley.
Details
House, C18 with later alterations and additions.
MATERIALS: red brick with tiled roof, stucco to the front elevation. The windows are timber (one uPVC to the rear) casements and sashes, all C21 replacements.
PLAN: the house faces south and has three bays over two storeys under a pitched roof with external end stacks to east and west. There is a cellar beneath the west side of the building. To the rear there is a short cross-wing to the east with an internal gable stack, and a single-storey outshut to the west, filling the angle between the cross-wing and the main range. The outshut appears to be a later, possibly a C19 addition.
At the west end of the building is a C20 single-storey extension which was previously a small shop. Behind this is a second single-storey extension dating to the late-C20.
The house has a central entrance, with a principal room to either side. Behind, parallel with the rear of the building, is the stair to the first floor, beneath which is the stair to the cellar below. The cross-wing contains the kitchen and the adjacent outshut, a rear lobby. On the first floor, three bedrooms and a bathroom are accessed from a galleried landing.
To the west side of the house is a small, low, pitched-roof, brick outbuilding with a stack to the rear. Based on mapping evidence, this dates to the mid-C19.
EXTERIOR: the front elevation is stuccoed, scored to mimic ashlar blockwork, with a decorative storey band of scored lines and crosses. The central doorway is wide and slightly recessed, with a six-panel door and half-glazed side panels. To either side, at each floor, are wide, tripartite sash windows without glazing bars. To the west is the single-storey shop extension, now with a tripartite sash window and blocked doorway; the side elevation is hung with concrete tiles.
The rear elevation is of red brick laid in Flemish bond. It is composed of the gable end of the cross-wing and the rear of the main range, the latter largely obscured by the outshut, but showing evidence of alteration in the form of abutting but unbonded sections of brickwork. There is a stepped brick eaves cornice to the main range and the return of the cross-wing. The elevation has an irregular arrangement of casement windows, either situated beneath the eaves or under shallow segmental heads. A stable door leads out from the outshut. To the west is the late C20 extension; this has a single storey and pitched roof, it is of red brick construction with glazed folding doors.
The end wall to the west is coated in unpainted stucco, and the end wall to the east is brick, with the stack coated in stucco.
INTERIOR: the house is entered into a small entrance lobby with four-panel doors, giving access to the principal rooms to either side. Both rooms have a substantial transverse beam, running front to back. Both beams are chamfered and have lambs-tongue stops. The rooms each have a fireplace with simple C19 painted chimneypieces which include a mantle-shelf on corbel brackets. The room to the east has a full-height built-in corner cupboard, with panelled doors and shaped shelves, probably of C18 date.
Behind the east room is the kitchen within the cross wing, which also has a chamfered and stopped beam, and gives access to the cellar stair. The cellar walls and floor are brick.
Behind the west room is the stair to the first floor. It is a straight flight which runs between a studwork wall and the original back wall of the house (now enclosed on the outside by the outshut). The door between the west room and the stair hall has two raised and fielded panels and is held on strap hinges; it is of some age, possibly C18, but has been rehung. The transverse beam from the west room continues through the studwork, over the foot of the stair to the back wall. The studwork and various other timbers are exposed within the stair hall and stair well. The date of these is unclear, but there is evidence of structural alteration to accommodate the straight stair in its current configuration.
The first-floor landing has turned balusters, probably of C20 date, and gives access to each of the rooms through plank and batten doors. Tie beams are exposed in the ceilings, as in the rooms below, but are not chamfered or stopped. There is a fireplace in the room to the east; this has a simple flat surround with a small mantle-shelf.
