Our investigations into the former blacksmith's shop have now ended and while almost nothing of the original building survives, we did manage to discover a little new information.
At the building's north-west and south-west corners we found one or two courses of house-bricks laid in a square, forming foundation pillars (first photo, at right). Given that no other foundations were found, we suspect that building may have been a shed-like structure with its frontage open to the track. As can be seen in the second photo, these pillars were laid directly on the natural sand and gravel which in turn overlies sandstone.
While the material above foundation level was modern, it still had a story to tell. We could see how various materials had been deposited (and mostly removed) when the nearby main road was improved in the 1980s, how channels for cables and pipes had been cut, where road-sweepers had emptied their loads and even where removal of invasive plant species had been carried out!
Our full write-up can be downloaded via the Reports page here.
