I have previously written a blog about the number of old Parkray room heaters that I come across and sweep on quire a regular basis, but this week’s blog is something quite rare. I first came across one of these Art Decco appearance/design Parkray in the vicarage at Great Canfield whilst sweeping for the Bishop of Chelmsford, where it was actually located in the office for the property – See my previous blog in 2022 I think. I came across this example in a house in Saffron Walden where it was located in the main sitting room. The customer told me that he had only seen one other example of his model of Parkray, and that was in the Victoria and Albert Museum in the design section. As can be seen in the photograph, this Parkray appliance has a beautiful rich golden brown colour, it put me in find of the French enameled stoves of the 1920’s and 1930’s that I sometimes see in people’s houses and sun rooms. It always amazes me to find these Parkray room heaters in people’s homes, still working very efficiently after having been installed many, many years ago! They certainly are a testament to great British design and engineering of the past. Things were definitely made to last in those days!

Parkray have been the leading name in solid fuel stoves for more than a century, producing heating components since 1850. Originally known as ‘Park Foundry’, the company quickly became the leading name in solid fuel appliances. Today, Parkray is based near Exeter in Devon. Parkray room heaters have been in existence for over 40 years, some of the older applainces (some 20, 30, 40 years old or in some cases even older) are still in existence and used daily by households all over the UK.  This is a testament to the build quality of some of these earlier Parkray models. As there are so many models and sizes of the Parkray, they can look very similar, however, the parts inside of them are different.  Some parts fit many appliances and others are more specific.