Forge Cottage

There has been a house on the corner of High Street and Sutton Lane for over 200 years, and it is possible to document most of the residents back to at least 1808. But Forge Cottage did not become a Smithy until around 1850, when Thomas Bray moved to the village from Bradford on Avon; the 1851 Census shows him as a 'Master Blacksmith'. He was followed at Forge Cottage by his three sons William, Thomas and Robert; Robert was the grandfather of Nesta Heath. See Nesta Heath, Life and Herbing in Sutton Benger, p. 3.

William and Robert were still shown as blacksmiths in the 1903 Kelly's Directory, and in the 1911 Census. However, by 1920 the blacksmith at Forge Cottage was Henry Martin, originally from Kington Langley.