Blacksmiths Arms, Broughton-in-Furness

Rough cast stone building in small hamlet. Datestone 1748 over the door, but with later extensions: it was part of a working farm until 1988. Originally two public rooms, two further rooms (the former village shop at the rear and one on the far left once part of the private accommodation) have been brought into use in recent years and have no old fittings. Entry is via a passageway with uneven flagstone floor, which runs through the building giving access to the rear rooms and gents’ toilet. A branch to the left gives access to the kitchen (in a modern extension) and the ladies’ toilets. The small bar on the right never had a proper bar counter until 1996 when a plain, simple one was installed along with new shelving behind, and there is a small fireplace with a modern overmantel. Although this is a small room, there are two doors (one of which has a figure '1' on it and one is locked out of use) giving access to the passageway.

The reason for inclusion as a pub with a nationally important pub interior is the room to the left It is divided from the passageway by a solid wooden screen with benches attached and is unaltered for many years. The tongue and groove latch door has a figure '2' being a requirement of the licensing magistrates in the past. It contains a cast-iron range and a couple of fitted cupboards of the former kitchen showing how the public house expanded into the private one. Seating consists of bare benches attached to the passageway partition, bare window seating, and a small piece of of wall bench seating left of the range fireplace. Its rear wall contains a door (locked and out of use) and a window looking onto the passageway to the kitchen. The low ancient beamed ceiling and three scrubbed top tables adds to the timeless nature of this room.

The building is floored with stone flags throughout, there are working gas lights in some of the rooms, and a mounting block in front of the building. Furniture is simple, and overall it gives a good impression of an old country inn. The extension into the shop and private accommodation does not detract – no recent changes appear to have been made to the plan of the building. However, the two doors into the bar room from the passageway suggest that there may have been some changes in this room in the past.

2014 Information received from a local lady whose family had run the pub for 80 years that the left-hand room was in use as part of the pub before the Second World War.