Chedham’s Yard, Wellesbourne, Warwickshire – a ‘time-capsule’ wheelwright’s workshop and blacksmith’s forge

Interior of wheelwright’s workshop, with treadle-operated machinery, work benches and tools. January 2004. Chedham’s Yard, which dates from the early-to-mid-19th century, was last used in the mid-1970s, when the owner, after completing his final working day, downed tools and closed the door, leaving his workshop, benches and equipment untouched. The site has remained in this condition ever since, creating in Chedham’s Yard a fascinating survival of the traditional industry of the wheelwright and blacksmith, and offering a vivid insight into the type of small-scale craft industries that stood at the centre of village life. The workshop and forge are cluttered with the paraphernalia of the wheelwrights’ trade, including distinctive treadle-operated grindstones and lathes, a tyring plate - used for setting the iron hops round wooden wagon wheels, blacksmiths’ hearths, with hand-powered bellows, tool racks, clamps, vices, gas lamps, and wheel components, including rim pieces, spokes and hubs.

Chedham’s Yard was purchased by Wellesbourne Parish Council in 2002, complete with contents and fittings, with the intention of conserving the site and opening it as a working craft museum. As part of a lengthy process of repairing and conserving the building and its contents, which must take place before the site can be opened to the public, the Parish Council and Warwickshire County Council requested advice on building recording and an assessment of the site’s significance and context. Staff from the English Heritage Research Department undertook a photographic record and produced an assessment of the significance and context of this exceptional survival.