Here we are working at another heritage property, this is Birbecks in Sewards End. It is a Grade II Listed Building: Listing No: 1196236, Date listed: 01 Nov 1972. The property, like many heritage properties in the area, is timber framed and has a beautiful

I have never mentioned this before, but we sweep at a great many pubs across the area, so perhaps this could become a regular feature of my weekly blog. Here we are at one of our regular sweeps, the Kings Arms in Market Hill

Here is something we do as a matter of course following a sweep, a type 2 smoke test, which checks the draw of the chimney and whether there is any smoke spillage into the room. The chimney is warmed with a firelighter (my preferred

A short time ago I was called to a barn conversion in Finchingfield where the customer was reporting having heard a bird ‘flapping around’ in the stove chimney. The stove turned out to be this rather stylish contemporary Scan 83-1 multi-fuel stove. I dismantled the

Here are some more of the wonderful medieval bench ends from the fantastic St John the Baptiste church at Danbury. Three were so many beautiful examples, I just wanted to share some more of them with everyone. There was so much to see at

 
This week we are back at the church of St John the Baptiste at Danbury. Here are just a small selection from the many surviving medieval bench ends carvings from the church at Danbury. As can be seen the church of St John the

 
The church of St John the Baptiste at Danbury has three very rare oak carved effigies of Norman Crusader Knights which date from the 13th century. Interestingly, they can be dated with some certainty due to the armour that they are wearing. The two

 
This week’s blog is about another medieval church that we have visited whilst sweeping for the Bishop of Chelmsford, the church at Danbury. In my view it is probably one of the most interesting churches and sites that we have visited in our Essex

We are just back from our annual two week spring break in Dorset. As usual we spent the two weeks at West Hembury Farm in Askerswell as the guests of the lovely Charlie and Lucy. We had some fantastic warm sunny weather as well

Following on from last week’s blog I came across this interesting piece of local chimney folk law relating to withes in the Channel Islands. Built into many old Guernsey cottages and houses you will often notice a curious granite plinth protruding from the Chimney