The Forge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-storey, three-bay gabled building with a lower rear return. Main entrance faces west.

Entrance elevation: roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with dark toned ridge tiles. One chimney, to south gable: red brick with projecting brick cornice; two modern red pots. Wall of basalt rubble with red brick block quoins and dressings to openings; projecting brick eaves course. Masonry has been repointed in cement. Cast iron gutter and downpipe. Symmetrical elevation comprising a window to each side of a central entrance. Windows are modern timber small-paned replacement casements, covered over with new rectangular sheeted timber shutters on iron hinges; deep concrete lintels; projecting concrete cills. Entrance comprises a semi-circular brick archway, with chamfered reveals, containing an arched ledged timber door flanked by arched plate glass sidelights; all woodwork new.

North gable is of similar walling, with smooth cement rendered strips to verges; elevation contains a ground floor window, as previous to entrance elevation, but larger; with a small circular brick dressed opening to the apex of the gable, but now blocked in the recess with what looks like cement render.

Rear elevation of front block: slated roof and walling as previous to entrance elevation except cement pointing is of cruder quality; cast iron gutter but downpipe now missing. One doorway, to right-hand side: rectangular timber ledged door in timber frame, recessed in red brick block surrounds; concrete doorstep. One window, to left of doorway: brick dressed with concrete lintel and cill but boarded up. Rear return projects at left-hand side.
Rear return has roof slated as previous; one chimney, on gable, similar to previous. Walls of red brick with projecting eaves course, and smooth rendered strips to verges of gable; cast iron gutters and downpipe. One window in each side wall: concrete lintels and cills; one on north side now boarded up; one on south side has sheeted external shutters as previous.

South gable of front block: walling as previous to entrance front except cement pointing is smeared over much of the stonework; two small segmental brick arched openings, blocked with red brick, near base of wall, with red brickwork rising above them to converge at apex of gable below chimney. One brick to right-hand breast is inscribed, 'Annadale Brick Co Ltd Works, Ormeau Road, Belfast', but is set upside own.

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

Historical information

Built as a blacksmith's forge, commonly known as a 'smithy'; precise date of building not known, but stylistically it dates from the late Victorian era; closed as a forge in 1983; occupied thereafter by a light engineering business until 1992; sold in 1992 by Shane's Castle Estates Company to DOE Roads Service with intention to demolish and incorporate the site in a public car park to be laid out on the surrounding ground; listed in 1992; a later lean-to block to the south was demolished between 1992 and 1994; sold to present owners in 1995 but remained vacant; described as derelict by 1997; refurbished in 1998.
This building is not recorded in the Industrial Heritage Record.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 43 (shows a small building on the site).
2. OS Map 1903, Co Antrim 43 (shows the present building, marked as a smithy).

Secondary Sources
1. Antrim Borough Council, Historic Antrim and Randalstown: heritage trails leaflet (Antrim, 2000).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is an example of a smithy from the late Victorian or Edwardian era, designed in a plain but clearly proportioned style, which is of enhanced value as it retains its original hearth and canopy to the interior.