Historic England Highlights Captivating Heritage Sites Listed in 2021

Skerne railway bridge, Darlington, County Durham

Listed at Grade I: Skerne railway bridge

The Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) company were highly influential both in England and abroad. They pioneered the early development of mainline railways, their working practices and structures. Skerne Bridge is located on what was once the outskirts of Darlington. It is part of the original mainline of the S&DR, was constructed in under eight months and featured prominently in the line’s opening celebrations in 1825.

Its architect Ignatius Bonomi was a skilled designer of masonry bridges, having been the County Surveyor for Bridges for County Durham since 1813. He was commissioned to begin work in 1824. He created an elegantly proportioned structure, with a single masonry arch spanning the river, flanked by two smaller pedestrian arches set in the wide piers that rise from the riverbank.

The bridge is the most impressive and technologically challenging engineering structure built for the opening of the S&DR; the quality of the design in no doubt as the bridge continues in its original use some 200 years later. Perhaps inspired by triumphal arches often built to celebrate great victories, this bridge is Bonomi’s most famous design and became emblematic of the momentous achievement of the S&DR, and the great historical significance of England’s railways – so much so that in the 1990s its image was featured on the five pound note.

The historical significance of the bridge was recognised half a century ago when it was designated as a Scheduled Monument. It remains in use as a railway bridge carrying regular passenger trains, the oldest such bridge in the world. However, as a bridge in regular use by the railway, protection as a listed structure rather than as a Scheduled Monument is now considered more appropriate. Skerne Bridge has thus now been added to the List, its exceptional special interest being marked by its inclusion in the top grade, Grade I. There are only seven Grade I listed railway bridges in England, and 170 Grade I bridges in total.

22 Shad Thames, Southwark, London

Listed at Grade II: 22 Shad Thames

22 Shad Thames is a simple glazed, concrete-framed box. Its creators took great care in their use of materials – with concrete combining structure, fireproofing, and finish. The building features a mix of ‘High-Tech’ cladding, as well as high-specification glazing, distinctive lead panelling, and a stair tower constructed of bolted steel plates.

The development of London’s Docklands in the final 20 years of the 20th century was one of the largest regeneration projects in Europe at the time. Shad Thames was defined by its Victorian warehousing, and in this building, built between 1988 and 1991, important post-war architect Sir Michael Hopkins and his design team set out to compliment this streetscape. It is built in ‘High-Tech’ style, which accentuates a building’s construction.

22 Shad Thames was built for designer and manufacturer David Mellor, who was very involved in its construction, and it was later purchased by Sir Terence Conran, whose firm occupied it until 2020. The building remains in use as offices.

Remains of Romano-British Villa, Ingleby Barwick, North Yorkshire

Scheduled Monument: Remains of Romano-British Villa

The remains of a Romano-British villa lie under the village green of a modern housing development in Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees - showing that important history really can be found on people’s doorsteps. The site includes the remains of a principal villa building, which is a rare survival. This joins three other villas in the area - at Old Durham, Piercebridge, and Dalton-on-Tees – as the most northern examples of villas known from anywhere across the whole of the Roman Empire.

Romano-British villas were extensive rural estates, which included a well-appointed, stone-built house with tiled or mosaic floors, underfloor heating, wall plaster and even glazed windows, together with agricultural and industrial buildings. Most villa complexes, including this example, also had a heated bath house. Such villas were constructed throughout the period of Roman occupation from the first to the fourth centuries AD by the elite section of Romano-British society, mostly being built by wealthy natives who had adopted a Romanised lifestyle. 

The villa’s field system was first identified from aerial photographs of cropmarks in 1970, but the presence of the villa buildings was not realised until archaeological investigations associated with a new housing development in 2000. The layout of the housing development was then changed to preserve the most significant part of the villa complex under a new village green, the surrounding area being archaeologically excavated in 2003 prior to the construction of the new housing.

The recovered evidence indicates that the villa complex was established in the second half of the 2nd century AD, during the Antonine period (famous for the construction of the Antonine Wall between the Firth of Forth and the Clyde in Scotland). The villa appears to have developed from a pre-existing farmstead and was used well after the end of Roman rule in 410AD.

The site retains important evidence of continuity and change over at least five centuries - much of it still preserved beneath the village green.

Church of All Saints and Martyrs, Langley, Rochdale

Listed at Grade II: Church of All Saints and Martyrs

This Anglican church was built between 1963 and 1964, designed by Albert Hilton Walker of Leach, Rhodes & Walker of Manchester. After the Second World War, suburban growth coupled with bomb damage stimulated demand for new churches.

The focus of a large post-war housing estate, All Saints was commissioned to serve a population who had been shifted wholesale due to inner-city slum clearances. It is a visually dramatic building – with a prow-like west end facing the road and with a full-height window set at zig-zag angles. It is brick-built, with a concrete frame featuring a geometrical pattern of intersecting concrete crossbeams to the interior, and was conceived to be a dual-purpose, flexible space to cater for worship and church-hall activities.

As with the contemporary Coventry Cathedral, its design showcases high quality modern artwork. Geoffrey Clarke, the notable post-war sculptor who had created distinctive artworks at Coventry Cathedral, created the impressive Langley Cross for the church. Encompassing the full height of the east end, the impact and quality of the aluminium Cross dominates the interior. The church’s attached polygonal chapel is now home to a recently relocated First World War memorial commemorating those lost from the parish, unusually listed street by street.

Brook Cottage, Ozleworth Valley, Gloucestershire

Listed at Grade II: Brook Cottage

Brook Cottage, together with Bridge Cottage, were a pair of houses built in the late 18th or early 19th century for workers of the Ozleworth Park estate. They were sold when the estate was broken up in 1947, and from 1958 Charles Tomlinson lived at Brook Cottage. In 1961 he converted Brook Cottage and Bridge Cottage into one home.

Charles Tomlinson CBE (1927-2015) was an acclaimed poet and translator. The Gloucestershire area and Brook Cottage itself provided the inspiration for many of his poems. Though Tomlinson travelled widely around the world, Brook Cottage was his base and the scene of gatherings which saw leading literary lights, including Ted Hughes, James Lees Milne, and Bruce Chatwin visit the house.

Built of local stone, with a Cotswold stone roof, the building is a very good example of the style and materials typical of its time in Gloucestershire. Illustrations of local craft skills abound, in the iron window and door catches that were forged nearby, and the unusual scalloped timber decoration to the window frames. Inside, original materials and details survive, including wide floorboards and stone-flagged floors.

HMS/m D1, Dartmouth, Devon

Scheduled Monument: HMS/m D1

HMS/m D1 was launched in the strictest secrecy in 1908. It was the first British submarine designed for offensive operations in enemy waters, rather than purely defensive operations in home waters.

Its design was a great leap forward as it was the first diesel-powered submarine and the first to be fitted with wireless telephony, allowing it to transmit and receive signals. HMS/m D1 was built by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness and commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1909. It operated from the outset of the First World War and was mentioned in dispatches in 1914 after coming into contact with the enemy. March 1918 saw it relegated to training duties, and in October of that year, it was used as a target during trials of submarine detection equipment.

Eight D-class submarines were constructed. Three of the group were sunk outside English territorial waters, and three were sold and scrapped in 1919.

The wreck of HMS/m D5 lies off Lowestoft, Suffolk, and is protected but is missing key features. In contrast, HMS/m D1, the unique prototype for the D class submarine, is structurally sound and is in an almost complete state of preservation. It is a rare survival of a pre-1914 submarine. This site, along with available technical plans, historic photographs, and logs, tells the story of its construction and service career.

Submarine Memorial Chapel of St Nicholas, Fort Blockhouse, Gosport, Hampshire

Listed at Grade II: Submarine Memorial Chapel of St Nicholas

Fort Blockhouse is an 18th-century artillery fort and 20th-century submarine base, a location central to the defence of Portsmouth Harbour over many centuries. This chapel is dedicated to St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors. It is an Anglican chapel erected in 1917 to commemorate submariners who lost their lives during the First World War, the first conflict in which submarines would play a significant military role.

Submarines were often tasked with defending Atlantic merchant shipping convoys against German U-boat attacks. It was a hazardous occupation. In the course of the First World War around one-third of all Submarine Service personnel were lost: 54 boats, 138 officers and 1225 men.

The chapel is a modest building with an elegant interior. It features a barrel-vaulted ceiling, and good quality stained glass windows dedicated to individual submariners and submarine squadrons.

It is exceptionally rare as a chapel built in England specifically to serve as a memorial to submariners, and all the more significant for its location at the principal base and spiritual home of Britain’s Submarine Service during the 20th century, from where so many sailed to serve, and die, for their country.

Ingleberg, Beckermet, Cumbria

Listed at Grade II: Ingleberg

Ingleberg was built for the Robley family in 1900. In its 120-year history, it has only been occupied by the Robleys and one other family, the Tuohys.

Today, it is something of a time capsule. The house was designed by regional architect Joseph Smithson Moffat of Whitehaven. Its exterior and footprint are largely unaltered, but it is the interiors that are most striking. Thanks to the care of the Robley and Tuohy families, Ingleberg retains almost all its original fixtures and fittings including its geometric tiled floor, plaster cornices, and joinery, from four panel doors to picture rails, and skirting boards.

Many original and unusual fittings remain, including fixed drawing room seating with Art Nouveau glass panels; original light fittings and light switches; carved chimney pieces in the drawing room and dining room, and servant bell pushes. Even more remarkable is the survival of original decorative schemes: wall coverings, ‘anaglypta’ and other friezes, and stencilling to halls and stairs.

Notable resident Thomas Tuohy CBE (1917-2008) worked in the nuclear industry at nearby Windscale (Sellafield nuclear site) and is recognised for bravely taking charge of efforts to extinguish the fire at Windscale in 1957 – averting nuclear disaster. His son, Dr Thomas Tuohy FSA, took over the house from 2005 and managed a restoration project which employed skilled local builders, joiners and carpenters, and craftspeople to sensitively restore many of the original period features, some of which had been stored in a nearby barn since the 1950s. The London-based artist Francis Martin restored the house’s distinctive stencilling.

Lelley Windmill, Elstronwick, East Riding of Yorkshire

Upgraded to Grade II*: Lelley Windmill

Lelley Windmill was built in 1790 for miller Peter Sumpter to mill corn. It is a six-storey brick-built tower with sliding sash windows. It is incredibly unusual in still retaining a full set of original milling machinery including grain bins, millstones and flour dressing equipment.

Windmills are thought to have been first used in England from the late 12th century, where previously there were only watermills reliant on fast-flowing streams. By the 18th and 19th centuries, windmills were widespread, at which point their numbers began to decline, in part because of the growing introduction of steam power.

Lelley mill tells this story vividly:Here it is possible to see the adaption of original machinery for operation by steam power, with the rare survival of a 19th-century vertical steam boiler and chimney, which were installed when the mill was upgraded to meet the demand for flour from the rapidly growing urban population.

The mill’s trade is then likely to have fallen away with the construction of large commercial steam mills in Hull in the early 20th century. Lelley encapsulates the impact of the industrial revolution on small-scale rural industry in Yorkshire.

Market Harborough Ambulance Station, Leicestershire

Listed at Grade II: Market Harborough Ambulance Station

Until the National Health Service Act of 1946 which made local authorities responsible for ambulance provision, ambulance stations were provided by hospitals, public bodies, the military, local government, and charities, resulting in a wide range in the types of ambulance stations being built. Stations were often just convenient places to store equipment and ranged from sheds attached to police stations to the more ambitious designs of the St John Ambulance Association, formed in 1877.

This ambulance station was built in 1924 as headquarters for the local St John Ambulance division. It is a rare surviving example of a purpose-built St John Ambulance station. In response to the introduction of motorised ambulances, which had begun around 1912, it was designed with direct access to the road by local architect Herbert George Coales.

In Queen Anne Revival style – a look influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement - it features high-quality brickwork and glazed tiles. The station still has its exceptionally rare original folding garage doors.

Coales and his partner Henry Winter Johnson, designed several buildings as Market Harborough expanded. These include the Grade II listed fire station and associated firefighters’ houses form an important group of municipal buildings that illustrate historic provision of emergency services in the town.

Mud Walls, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire

Listed at Grade II

Despite their location in the East of England, the mud walls of Whittlesey – at 5 Delph Street; 9 to 13 Horsegate; wall between Wades Yard and 14 Horsegate; wall between Whittlesey Conservative Club and 36 Whitmore Street; Old Crown Lane - were built in line with the ‘cob’ tradition of the South West of England, in which earth is bound with straw and mixed with water to create building material.

They were shaped in stages over several months. Mud walling in Whittlesey is thought to date to the 18th and 19th centuries when the government imposed a tax on brick and tile. The tax was intended to help pay off debts incurred during the American War of Independence (1775 to 1783) but remained in place for decades.

Many properties in Whittlesey at the time had long garden plots, which occupants used to grow goods for the town’s market. Property boundaries were important – increasingly so in the period of land enclosure in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Mud walls were an innovative and inexpensive solution.

The walls were formed of high-quality clay available from land reclamation in the Fens and then topped with more durable material. Across the town, walls have some variation: in height, in material used for the plinth at the base (brick or stone) and in the ‘coping’ (thatch, curved clay tiles or wooden boards) on the top. They were still being built during the 19th century, but over the decades many have been lost, as plots were sub-divided, or they were replaced with quick-to-install modern fencing.

The five newly-listed sections of wall join two already listed sections (to the rear of the Black Bull Inn, and at 4 West End) to illustrate local craft skills and creativity in response to a specific set of economic challenges.

Selworthy Farm, Holnicote Estate, Somerset

Listed at Grade II: Selworthy Farm

Selworthy village is recorded in the Domesday Book, and Selworthy Farm has post-medieval origins. It was enlarged and improved in the 19th century. It consists of a group of interesting buildings – some of which are the subject of these three separate listings.

The farm’s buildings lie within the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate and give us an insight into changing agricultural practices in Exmoor over many centuries. The original house is a one and a half storey building, dating to the 16th century. Although the house has been altered, it is still possible to see historic features including fireplaces, doors, and a good proportion of the original roof structure. Visible too is the evolution of the building.

When the new farmhouse (not listed) was built directly in front of it in 1883, the original ceased to be a dwelling. It was reduced in size and used as a back kitchen and scullery with a grain store on the first floor. Though it has changed and adapted, the building offers an interesting glimpse of historical construction techniques typical of the region.

Around a rectangular cobbled yard to the east lies the courtyard farm buildings. Most of these date to the second half of the 19th century. The 18th century thatched barn is the earliest structure in this part of the farm and retains much of its historic fabric. These buildings are well preserved and illustrate how farming processes were organised and co-ordinated for better efficiency – with buildings for fattening cattle, and barns for threshing and storage. There are animal shelters, ‘byre’ (cowshed) divisions, stalls with original wooden gates, feeding passages, and wooden troughs.

The cow house to the south east of the courtyard was built in the 18th century. It is constructed from local materials and though adapted it is still possible to see its original function of cow house and hay loft.

Shoreham Memorial Cross, Sevenoaks, Kent

Scheduled Monument: Shoreham Memorial Cross

The Shoreham Memorial Cross was the idea of Shoreham resident Samuel Cheeseman, a father who lost two sons in the First World War. It is carved into the chalk of the hillside and carefully edged with chalk blocks. It was designed to be seen from the Shoreham War Memorial in the valley below and was carefully shaped and scaled to appear symmetrical.

It was conceived as a permanent testament to all those from the parish who lost their lives in the First World War. Men, women, and children from the village worked together to complete the cross, which was finished in September 1921. The inscription on the nearby War Memorial reads ‘Remember as you look at the cross on the hill those who gave their lives for their country 1914-19’.

Every year after it was completed Mr Cheeseman would pull a small cannon up the hill to the cross in an act of remembrance for his sons.

This is one of only two memorial crosses of its type known to survive and is an eloquent illustration of the impact of the conflict on this community.

The Brown Jug public house, Broadstairs, Kent

Listed at Grade II: The Brown Jug

The Brown Jug was originally constructed as a farm cottage, most likely in the 18th century. The building has seen multiple phases of development which are visible in its surviving historic fabric, and it is still possible to see its original, simple two-room plan, particularly at ground floor level.

The building was likely converted to pub use in the late 18th or early 19th century, and documents of 1795 refer to the building as the Queen’s Arms Tap, and in 1813, an auction sale advertisement refers to it as The Brown Jug.

Externally, the 18th-century fabric of the building survives in the knapped, or shaped, flint walls, a traditional Kent technique.

Inside significant 18th century and 19th century features survive, including lath and plaster walls. In the pub’s more recent history its interiors have hardly altered since the 1960s, in line with the wishes of the previous licensee, who ran the pub until it closed in 2019. There are distinctive mid-20th century features in many rooms including fireplaces, cornicing, dado rails, and panelling.

The Dome, Mildenhall, Suffolk

Listed at Grade II: The Dome

The Dome is a sports hall built in 1977 using the highly innovative Bini system. The system was invented in 1963 by Italian architect Dante Bini who saw in it a means of achieving economy and speed in construction. In short, the system works by covering a giant neoprene membrane with concrete and inflating it. The membrane is kept inflated for 60 hours to allow the concrete to set, after which windows and doors are cut into the structure.

The rights to the system in Britain were taken by NorWest Holst Construction, naming the system ‘parashell’ for the domestic market. The company built just three domes, only two of which now survive. The only other surviving parashell building is the Edinburgh Dome at Malvern Girls College, also built in 1977.

The Mildenhall dome is more utilitarian in nature and was completed on a tighter budget for the local authority, though it does feature some additional experimentation and innovation – in the construction of the ‘ventilation cowl’ (chimney covering) at the crown of the dome.

Police Box, Newtown Linfold, Leicestershire

Listed at Grade II: Police Box

The police telephone kiosk, from around 1931, was originally located in North Kilworth but moved to Bradgate Park at Newtown Linford in 1952.

The idea of a system of boxes detached from a controlling central police station originated in the United States in the late 19th century, and the first English examples were introduced in Sunderland County Borough police force in 1923.

Once a common sight in the early and mid-20th century, the increasing home ownership of telephones in the 1960s led to police boxes becoming obsolete, and they are now very rare in England.

As policing is the responsibility of regional bodies, the form, and use of boxes varied between forces. The world-famous Dr Who police box was based on a Metropolitan police design from the early 1960s.

The Leicestershire box is of a distinctive size and shape and a design type not seen in other policing areas. Its survival is rare, especially as it has been repaired on several occasions after being hit by motor vehicles.

Windleshaw House, Withyham, East Sussex

Listed at Grade II: Windleshaw House

Windleshaw House was built in 1907-1908, designed by the Arts and Crafts designer and architect W A S Benson as a country residence for himself and his wife Venetia.

It has been listed at Grade II as it is one of the finest surviving houses by the architect. His idiosyncratic design approach appears in surviving details such as the windows, lighting, and internal fittings. The elaborate cast-iron windows which survive throughout the house were designed by Benson as bespoke examples of the patent version sold more widely.

The principal rooms remain largely as they were originally planned, retaining features including panelling, window settings, and other joinery, together with chimneypieces, again designed by Benson for the house. The principal staircase features a Benson lamp and provides an elegant and original centrepiece to the house.

While the planning of the house and garden powerfully reflects the couple’s manner of living and entertaining, the house’s features and fittings link to Benson’s influential and prolific design work and to the work of Morris & Co, which Benson was closely associated with for many years.

Roman Catholic Church of St Boniface, Southampton

Listed at Grade II: Roman Catholic Church of St Boniface

This inter-war church was designed in 1927 by the notable early 20th-century architect Wilfred Mangan - one of several churches he designed for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth. The church has been listed at Grade II as a good example of his work.

It is built in Neo-Byzantine style, with an exuberant and well-detailed design, especially on the front of the church. This includes an elegant bell tower and decoratively contrasting bricks and tiles which create different colours and textures. Its internal features include elaborate marble fixtures and good-quality carpentry.

Former Picture Palace, Prescot, Merseyside

Listed Grade II: Former Picture Palace

The Former Picture Palace at Prescot was a cinema and variety theatre created in 1912 in Edwardian, Neo-Baroque style by remodelling two 19th century townhouses. Its status as a palace of pleasure and escapism in the Edwardian era was reflected in its flamboyant and ornate architectural style.

The “cine-variety” theatre was originally created by The Prescot Picture Palace Company Limited, which purchased 12-14 Kemble Street, and employed local firm Messrs S&A Taylor of Prescot to convert the buildings. The ground floors were converted into a foyer and box office, and the cinema auditorium was built to the rear of the buildings with a narrow stage for Variety Theatre and a custom-built projection room created on the second floor above the auditorium.

At its opening, it was described as presenting a palatial appearance and ‘quite luxurious’ with the theatre seating 630 customers, which increased with the addition of a balcony around 1913. Though it has been adapted for various purposes since its original creation, its original format and decorative scheme remain, as do the fixtures and fittings including the cinema seating, doors, raked floors, and fire-resistant projection room.

As a rare building type, it represents a key moment in the transformation of entertainment venues from music halls to cinema.

The Fosse Way Bridge, Gloucestershire

Listed Grade II: The Fosse Way Bridge

This unaltered, former packhorse bridge spanning the River Avon comprises a single arch. It was built in the mid-1700s by skilled stonemasons and is created entirely from Cotswolds limestone.

It follows the historic route of The Fosse Way, a Roman road built during the first and second century, that linked Exeter to Lincoln.

Featuring on a map of Wiltshire from 1773, it appears on Ordnance Survey maps from 1829 and later in the tithe map of 1838, when it was listed as part of ‘The Foss Road’ from Bath to Cirencester and formed part of a route that ran through a private estate. The 1st edition (1886) Ordnance Survey map, and subsequent maps, show the bridge as a footbridge, as it continues to survive today as part of a public footpath.

Selby Canal Tunnels, North Yorkshire

Four tunnels listed at Grade II

Four unusual, cutting-edge tunnels which were designed to stop Selby Canal from flooding have been listed at Grade II.

Lund Tunnel, Brayton Tunnel, Paperhouse Tunnel and Tankard's Culvert (West Haddesley) were created in 1778 by eminent engineer William Jessop for the Aire and Calder Navigation Company at an early stage in the development of the canals system.

The tunnels were built as an ingenious engineering solution to alleviate the threat of the Selby Canal being inundated and damaged by floodwater.

Selby canal is six miles long. The low lying, flat land that surrounds it meant Jessop and his team avoided costly engineering features, but the fact that the area was prone to flooding required Jessop to design five cutting-edge tunnels beneath the canal, to prevent it from being damaged or inundated by floodwater (the fifth tunnel was in-filled at an uncertain date).

Although varying in detail, all of the tunnels consisted of a pair of roughly D-shaped collection ponds, or “sumps”, either side of the canal channel, which were linked by a tunnel or tunnels passing beneath the canal.

By 1800, Selby Canal was handling in the region of 369,780 tons of cargo per year. However, its very success was also it's undoing as the huge volume of traffic was causing delays and congestion at Selby. Consequently, the Aire and Calder Company opened a new cut to Goole in 1826, and a steady decline for Selby continued from then into the 1900s.

Selby Canal gained an additional role during the Second World War when a Buffer Depot was established at Selby as an emergency food store with access to the canal system. Post-war, the canal was nationalised in 1948.

It has seen an increase in pleasure boat traffic, which has steadily grown to over 2,000 boats using the canal each year. In July 2012, all British Waterways' assets including the Selby Canal were transferred to the Canal and River Trust.

Durbins, Guildford, Surrey

House upgraded to Grade II* / Motor house listed Grade II

Durbins, Guildford, which was built from 1908 to 1909 to the design of the Bloomsbury Group artist and art critic Roger Fry (1866-1934), has been upgraded.

Fry was a champion of Post-Impressionism and is considered one of the most influential 20th-century British art critics.

The house is renowned for its progressiveness and originality of design. It is designed in sections with split-level planning. Built on a sloping site, Fry carefully considered the layout, ensuring that it brought the activities of all members of the family together around a galleried double-height living hall, capitalising on views outwards to the Surrey Hills, which were a subject of Fry’s paintings.

The house interior retains original mosaics and murals by Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, and Duncan Grant, which are the earliest known examples of domestic decoration by these Bloomsbury Group artists that are still ‘in-situ’. Many original features survive, inside and out, including its parquet floors, cast-iron radiators, servant bell indicator board, original doors, and brass door furniture.

Durbins’ garage, or ‘motor car house’, has also been listed at Grade II. It is a very rare, prefabricated timber structure with a gabled roof, and looks like a timber-framed building of an earlier era. It has had very few alterations since it was erected in the 1920s.

Old Blacksmith’s Shop, Knighton, Wiltshire

Grade II listed: Old Blacksmith’s Shop

Historically, blacksmith’s shops, or “smithies”, were vital for the running of every farm and village in the country since the medieval period. Their numbers fell dramatically in the 20th century due to the developments in transport that replaced horse power, and due to new methods of powering our homes and industries - from the first coal-fired power stations, to the national grid, to the electric-vehicle charging points of today.

This site is an unusually complete example of a small, 19th-century freestanding “smithy” building. It has survived remarkably intact so has a time capsule quality – with a complete interior including the original forge and anvil block.

The Blacksmith’s Shop has a pigsty attached, built in a similar style, which is thought to have been built so the pigs could benefit from the forge’s heat through the shared wall. The building is an interesting and poignant reminder of the important role of small metal industry within rural communities.

Its former importance to the community is emphasised by its position - near Grade II listed Knighton Manor (which is on the site of a deserted medieval village), and near a former mill site and farmstead.

Please be aware that not all listed places are publicly accessible.