The site is located south of 15 Shipbourne Road, Tonbridge Kent. The building is located between the George and Dragon Inn to the north and Dryhill Farmhouse to the south. The building is situated to the rear of the plot and is surrounded by tarmacadam and concrete yards. A car park is situated to the front of the site whilst no.15 is located to the north and no.7 to the south. No.8 was originally situated to the front of the site but was demolished in the 1960s to provide a car park for the George and Dragon Inn.
A simple utilitarian designed building that in recent years has primarily served as a warehouse and showroom for the former ‘World of Pots’. The construction is characteristic of an early twentieth century date of light industrial function, comprising brick built walls with simple timber roof structure, with a limited number of windows and doors. The building has been altered firstly by the removal and loss of the west wall and the addition of the blockwork extension, secondly by the insertion of a new doorway and window and finally by the addition of studwork, plasterboard and blockwork partitions, external weatherboarding and a suspended ceiling. It is possible that evidence of doors and windows may survive at ground floor level in the western wall, behind the later plasterboard and weatherboarding.
Documentary evidence suggests that the site was formerly a smithy and it is known that the Coules Brothers did operate from 8 Shipbourne Lane, however the building in its current state shows no evidence of any hot-working, forges or flues. It is possible that evidence for the smithy has been lost with the extension of the building to the east or that the smithy operated from the demolished buildings which formerly faced Shipbourne Road.
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<1> Ecus environmental consultants, 2016, Building Southeast of 15 Shipbourne Road, Tonbridge, Kent, Historic Building Record (Unpublished document). SKE32068.