Our project here called for a number of different tasks to facilitate the careful repair and restoration to the Old Forge, at Chop Gate.
As can be seen from the photographs the Forge had suffered from storm damage and sixty years of laying idle and neglected.
The forging hearth, as seen above was of particular concern, we felt the best way forward was to research the history and the overall mechanics of the full site. We instigated a local appeal for information as to how one particular stone related to the forge and it’s future working.
the forging hearth was rebuilt to form the gather and two local blacksmiths asked for their input.
The party wall between the forge and the cow byre was from an early date than the rest of the building, probably Medieval. It was decided that an area had to be rebuilt, over and to the side of the Medieval gable.
The gable end was rebuilt with original and newly masoned stone to match onsite.
The walls were rebuilt, consolidated and re-pointed. New joinery work to where was needed and then roof lathed in.
To minimize disturbance to the Medieval stone work I decided on a system of core grouting and fracture stitching.
Existing holes were temporarily sealed with clay, grout tubes inserted, grout runs identified and the wall thoroughly wetted up.
the culmination of our efforts lead to Stephen doing a two day home-wares course on lime pointing and a two day blacksmith course via a local blacksmith.
The building was placed in a trust so that local testing groups can store larger items in there.
This all lead to Stephen being on both ITV and Yorkshire TV news report.
Client: North York Moors National Park
