Apart from the working farms and some cottages, the most important if modest building was the smithy, which catered for the local demand for shoeing riding and transport horses, and carrying out repairs to agricultural machinery such as ploughs and harrows. The smithy was founded in 1733 and kept going until 1956-7. The 1914/18 War brought additional activity with two forges, smiths and strikers turning out thousands of horseshoes for the army.