It looks like pigs might actually fly! I couldn’t resist taking a photograph of this customers thatched flying pig on her roof in Ugley. No one is really sure of the story behind this thatched animal, but its safe to say that it is rather amusing and very unusual! I don’t think anyone will have seen one of these before.

Having said this the flying pig has its origins in the distant past in the folklore of ancient Greece – The Flying Pig is a creature with origins in Greek mythology, legend and folklore. The original flying pig was a winged boar named Chrysaor, the offspring of the Gorgon Medusa, and the Greek sea god Poseidon, and the brother of the winged horse Pegasus.

There was also The Crommyonian Sow was a wild pig that ravaged the region around the village of Crommyon between Megara and Corinth, and was eventually slain by Theseus in his early adventures. According to the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, it was said by some to be the daughter of Echidna and Typhon, and was named after the old woman who raised it. According to Strabo, the sow was said to be the mother of the Calydonian Boar. Gaius Julius Hyginus says that the pig Theseus killed at Crommyon was a boar.

Plutarch repeats the story, but states that he had also been told that Phaia herself was a murderous female robber, and was nicknamed “Sow” because of her obese children and uncouth manners, and that she was the “sow” killed by Theseus.

This little girl is called Tarka and as you can see, she is a three-year-old working Cocker Spaniel who has a lovely chocolate brown coat. She is also a cheeky little money, like most of her breed! She had already been in the front cab of my van as I had left the door open whilst I was working and her owner John chased her out. When I returned to the van with the equipment having completed the sweep, I found her in the rear of the van. She was most reluctant to come out, hence my opportunity to take some funny pictures of her!! John was telling me that they had recently had some building work done and Tarka had got into the builder’s van and eaten all their sandwiches, what a naughty girl, the builders were not best pleased but saw the funny side of it. Although quite small, Tarka is a bundle of energy, when I first arrived at the job and gave her a little fuss and attention, she then spent the next 10 minutes doing zoomies around the sitting room. Very funny to watch!!

 Yes, yes, I know, Stovax are a very popular make of stoves, and you see many of them about whilst sweeping, particularly the Stovax Stockton and the Riva Cassettes. But what you don’t see are examples of the Stovax Midi Riva Plus, I came across this ‘Flat Top’ Multi-Fuel standalone variant just the other day in Stansted. To be perfectly honest it is the only one of this model that I have ever seen and seems to be an early variant. It was also unusual in that it has a very short four and a half meter run of factory made chimney and yet the customer told me that it always lights first time without smoking back into the room and draws terrifically well once it is at operating temperature. The customer stated that she was more than pleased with the way the stove heats the room, to the point that she has to be careful how much fuel she puts into it so that the room does not get too warm.

The Stovax Heating Group has been dedicated to the design and manufacture of exceptional stoves, fires and fireplaces for 38 years. Today, we are one of the UK’s leading stove and fireplace manufacturers, exporting to over 25 countries worldwide.

Across our wood burning, multi-fuel, gas and electric products, we strive to create the future of fire. Each of our heating products is the result of decades of expert craftsmanship and class-leading innovation – representing the pinnacle of British engineering.

The Stovax Heating Group is proud to be part of the NIBE Stoves group, a market-leading provider of domestic heating products.

Based in Exeter, England, Stovax Ltd was established in 1981 to design, manufacture and distribute wood burning stoves and fireside accessories. By 1988, the sister company Gazco Ltd was formed to develop and produce gas and electric versions of Stovax stoves.

Today, Stovax and Gazco continue to work very closely together. Each company has constantly developed its product range such that the combined businesses have grown to become one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of stoves, fireplaces and fires, with exports to countries worldwide.

In 2006, Stovax Ltd purchased Yeoman, a long established manufacturer of wood burning stoves that specialised in more rustic, rural styling. The company continues to produce a distinctive and separate range of wood burning, multi-fuel, gas and electric stoves and fires under the Yeoman brand.

Stovax is also the UK and Republic of Ireland distributor for a number of additional fireplaces and stove brands including Dovre, Lotus, Nordpeis & Varde. You can find your nearest retailer in the UK and the Republic of Ireland by using the Find a Retailer tool on this website. For information on distributors in other countries, please contact exportsales@stovax.com.

https://www.stovax.com/information/contact/

This week’s blog is a bit of extra heritage detail continued from last week’s description of the Vicarage of All Saints at Maldon. In the large sitting room of the building there are a number of surviving examples of medieval wall painting. These sections of painting are now protected behind glass screens. They are quite fantastic survival from the middle ages and are somewhat awe inspiring. To think that somebody would have painted them over six centuries ago and that we are still able to view then today is amazing.

The British listed buildings web page notes that: The inside face of the east wall has traces of wall painting of vertical red and white stripes and the sacred monogram IHC in white on a red stripe with foliage ornament. Clover leaf motifs, white on the red stripes and black on the white stripes represent The Holy Trinity. The vicarage is a Grade II* Listed Building: Listing No: 1257084, Date listed: 24 Sept 1971.

This is the second occasion that we have been to sweep at the medieval vicarage of All Saints in Maldon. It is an amazing 15^th century timber framed house that still retains a wealth of original features. Originally it was built as a hall house with a solar and in all probability would have had an open hearth. It is a Grade II* Listed Building: Listing No: 1257084, Date listed: 24 Sept 1971. After the three churches, the oldest building in Maldon is the Vicarage.

It was built as a vicarage in about 1350 and it has always been the vicarage of the parish except for a short period in the 18th Century when the then vicar thought it was not grand enough and moved himself into Friary House (at the bottom end of the public car park across the High Street) and housed his curate in the vicarage. The original house was raised to a second story in 1450 when Mr D’Arcy’s bequest installed two chantry priests with a house and an acre of ground adjacent to the church. The substantial walled garden still exists within 50 metres of Maldon High Street. The most recent addition, the east wing, was added in 1670. For 200 years the half-timbered fascia was covered with rendering until in 1902 it was stripped away and the porch restored to reveal the frontage in its full glory. From the rear it is much easier to see just how this house evolved. Inside there are some walled paintings dating from the 15th century and timbers reputed to have been trees at the time of the Norman Conquest.

The British listed buildings web page notes that: Vicarage. 1449, early C16 and C17, restored 1902. Timber-framed and rendered with some exposed framing and gabled plain tiled roof. Complex plan form with main block of hall with 2 cross-wings type. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. The front of the west cross-wing has carved barge-boards of 1902 with pomegranates and gable framing exposed with arched down-braces from the crown post. The tie beam has moulded soffit and an early C20 square oriel has 3 large brackets and flat lead roof. The 3-light casement window of this as other contemporary windows on front are of hardwood with square fixed lights above transom with leaded glazing. The exposed 1st-floor framing has double wall bracing. The ground floor is jettied with original brackets and square oriel of 4 lights as above. Rendered and truncated old stack on west flank. The 2-storey hall block has exposed framing with 2 major wall posts framing a probable window opening. The 1st floor has one 1902 window of 2 lights and similar 3-light window linked by a 2-light ovolo-mullioned leaded window with wrought-iron subsidiary mullions. Also one similar window now as cross-mullioned. The ground floor has an ovolo-mullioned 2-light window, either side of a 3-light casement of 1902. Gabled projecting porch of 1902 with ornamental barge-boards with grape pattern and front posts with attached shafts with moulded bases and capitals. Recessed arched door head with carved and dated (1902) spandrels and door of multi-studded battens with rectangular fanlight over. The east gable has moulded and carved barge-boards of 1902 with grape pattern and of 45 degree pitch. The gable framing is exposed with ogee-curved down-braces to crown post. The exposed tie beam has a moulded soffit. 1st floor has exposed frame and single wall braces to corner posts and 3-light 1902 flush casement as others. The jetty is exposed but with modern fascia over framed and moulded jetty bressumer. One jetty bracket of mid-C17 character remains. Ground floor has square 4-light oriel as others and 2-light c1600 ovolo-mullioned window with leaded glazing. The eastern cross-wing has 2 late, 2-storeyed extensions on its east flank. These have parallel plain tile, gabled roofs, at right-angles to the cross-wing ridge. The southernmost of these has painted decorative tiling and a plain 2-light casement on its south wall at 1st-floor level. Other walls are rendered and 12-pane sash window at 1st floor on east elevation. Larger extension behind projects further and has exposed brick and pantile-roofed lean-to extension on its east wall. The ground floor has 16-pane sash windows and C20 casement over. T-shaped stack in valley between extensions. The rear of the west wing is hipped with a gablet and there is a gabled stair tower adjoining. INTERIOR: the west cross-wing is a high quality, 2-bay structure with unjowled posts and with a single chamber on each floor. Floor joists with centre tenons and soffit shoulders. The ground floor front wall shows evidence for further double wall bracing and a square oriel window. Fireplaces to west flank, that to the upper floor having a stone late medieval surround. It is suggested that the original stack position was in the rear bay of this flank where there is a substantial gap in the framing and a probable window opening adjoining. The rear wall of this structure has vertically aligned door openings on each floor, that to the ground floor with an arched head. Presumably one or both of these gave access to a stair but this area was altered in the late C17 (painted date on wall) to provide an additional rear bay. The east wall has elaborate curved wall bracing exposed within the later hall. A crown-post roof substantially survives of cross-quadrate form over the central tie beams.

 Here is something a bit different fore this week’s blog – As you will have seen from previous blogs, we sweep a number of biomass boilers across our sweeping area, ranging from small domestic boilers to large appliances that heat a number of properties or just one large property. This example is a Gilles boiler and is located in an outbuilding at a property near Wickhambrook. We have been sweeping this appliance annually for quite some time now. Just above my head is a T-Piece and soot collection trap which has to be cleaned out following sweeping. I use rotary power sweeping equipment to clean the robust factory-made chimney.

A search on the internet revealed that Gilles were bought out in 2020: Biomass-boiler supplier Hargassner from Weng in Upper Austria announced in September 2020 the acquisition of Gilles. The family owned company Hargassner engages 450 employees and manufacturers Pellet, Wood Log and Wood Chip boilers in a power scale of 6 kW until 330 kW. Through the acquisition, the range is now extended with industrial boilers up to 2.500 kW. Hargassner is very strong international committed. Due to various innovations, Hargassner is known as a leading supplier for biomass in Europe.

Hargassner Biomass Heating Ltd

Unit 215b Holme Lacy Road
Hereford HR2 6BQ

Office: +44 (0) 1432 513777
Out of hours: +44 (0) 7391 590 689
office@hargassner.co.uk
www.hargassner.com

In the middle of the week we were working in Great Sampford at Post Cottage when we took this photo of the view from the front garden. A fantastic heritage shot of the centre of a quintessential English village. The church of St Michael is Grade 1 listed, Listing Number: 1322547, Date listed: 21 Feb 1967. I just love the feature of the blocked transept window, the tracery and medieval stained glass having long disappeared and the void being filled with old soft red brick. Not only is it evidence of ‘pleasing decay’, it tells a story of the rising and declining fortunes of the village over time. It is absolutely beautiful. The old cottages in the foreground just add to the whole pleasing effect.

We had a real treat this week when we were sweeping in Little Bradley, where the most loveable and affectionate Cocker Spaniel Alfie lives. Alfie likes nothing more than to have big hugs and lots of fussing, and if you stop stroking him he will quickly let you know by talking to you. Such a typical Cocker! Both Claire and I are Cocker people, we have three of our own, but Alfie is definitely something else, he is on a whole new level of adorable! Who can not enjoy working when you have days like these!

I came across this Stovax Riva 2 323-325 Wood-Burning Inset Stove at an address in Wimbish just the other day. This was the first time I had seen one of these Riva 2’s, like most sweeps I see plenty of the Stovax Riva’s as they are a very popular model of stove and are therefore to be found in many homes that I sweep at across the area. The original Riva’s have a double baffle system, with a lower baffle held up by side pins on either side of the stove and a top baffle held up on two pins in the roof of the stove. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that the Riva 2 is much more simply put together, with just one baffle supported on the two vermiculite side bricks, making the Riva 2 much more straight forward to dismantle and clean. A real result. Having said this, its simplicity does not seem to affect its performance, and the customer is more than pleased with the way that it heats the room.

The Stovax Heating Group has been dedicated to the design and manufacture of exceptional stoves, fires and fireplaces for 38 years. Today, we are one of the UK’s leading stove and fireplace manufacturers, exporting to over 25 countries worldwide.

Across our wood burning, multi-fuel, gas and electric products, we strive to create the future of fire. Each of our heating products is the result of decades of expert craftsmanship and class-leading innovation – representing the pinnacle of British engineering.

The Stovax Heating Group is proud to be part of the NIBE Stoves group, a market-leading provider of domestic heating products.

Based in Exeter, England, Stovax Ltd was established in 1981 to design, manufacture and distribute wood burning stoves and fireside accessories. By 1988, the sister company Gazco Ltd was formed to develop and produce gas and electric versions of Stovax stoves.

Today, Stovax and Gazco continue to work very closely together. Each company has constantly developed its product range such that the combined businesses have grown to become one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of stoves, fireplaces and fires, with exports to countries worldwide.

In 2006, Stovax Ltd purchased Yeoman, a long established manufacturer of wood burning stoves that specialised in more rustic, rural styling. The company continues to produce a distinctive and separate range of wood burning, multi-fuel, gas and electric stoves and fires under the Yeoman brand.

Stovax is also the UK and Republic of Ireland distributor for a number of additional fireplaces and stove brands including Dovre, Lotus, Nordpeis & Varde. You can find your nearest retailer in the UK and the Republic of Ireland by using the Find a Retailer tool on this website. For information on distributors in other countries, please contact exportsales@stovax.com.

https://www.stovax.com/information/contact/

No, on this occasion I was not sweeping for the Bishop of Chelmsford when I visited great Canfield church, but for a private customer who lives in a large house nearby. The thing that strikes you immediately when approaching this small Essex church is its Norman doorways. These Romanesque doorways assist in dating the church back in the past as far as the Norman period. After a walk around the outside of the church examining the flint fabric, I was excited to have a look inside. However, I was quickly disappointed as the church was locked. There were however the details of the Church Warden from whom the key could be obtained. Unfortunately, I had other jobs to do and was somewhat time pressured, so I did not have the time to obtain the key and have a look around. Reading further on the internet, it would appear that I missed a real treat, and I will therefore have to make the time for a return visit when I have more time.

The Norman doorways of the church are not the only external features that place the church in the Norman period. Close by are the remains of a Norman Mote and Bailey Castle. The castle was built by the De Vere family who were the Earls of Oxford and who also built the notable Norman castle at Castle Headingham which survives intact to this day. The castle at Great Canfield, while clearly not in the same league as Castle Hedingham, is nonetheless a particularly fine example of its type. The earthworks are large and impressive and its ditches, which also include a partial diversion of the river Roding, indicate the power of its owners.

The present church at Great Canfield dates back to the time of the Mote and Bailey Castle, but probably replaced an earlier church. The church itself is rather impressive and is evidence of the wealth of its once powerful benefactors the De Vere family. On entering the porch the visitor is confronted with a most unusual Norman doorway. The tympanum itself is fascinating with it stylised “rising sun” chevron work and billeted extrados but the real interest lies just below in the capitals. Here, on the left, is thought to be a representation of Odin with the ravens Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory) whispering to him. On the return there is a row of five swastika carvings. The opposite capital features another Norse face and what appears to be a snake. Whether these are indeed Norse carvings or perhaps relate to Biblical stories is unclear, yet the Norse style of execution is compelling. It is possible that these carvings originate from an earlier building.

Inside the church there is a wealth of architectural features, chief amongst these is the magnificent Norman chancel arch. In addition, there is a Thirteenth-Century wall painting featuring an image of the Virgin Mary which Nikolas Pevsner considered to be the finest in the country. It is believed that the wall painting, and the accompanying decoration on the east wall, may once have formed an unusual painted reredos.