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 peg tile roof.

The central feature of the property is a large inglenook open fire with register plate, hood and inspection hatches. Cleaning such a thing is labour and time intensive as you have to clean each side of the inglenook individually. I know that it is certainly a tiring thing to do and always makes my arms quite tired afterwards. The chimney is constructed with old soft red brick, which is a common feature in the area. It also has old clay/lime pargetting as an interior lining in the chimney. Great care therefore has to be taken when cleaning the chimney so as not to dislodge the old lining. With this chimney I use a soft 24” inglenook brush to ensure that I don’t damage the chimney. The chimney is also of such a height and width that I have to use aluminium stretcher rods in order to prevent the rods/brush folding back on themselves in the chimney. Just some little tricks of the trade!

In all likelihood Birbecks originally was a manor house or the home of a successful Yeoman farmer. It is certainly a very attractive, picturesque house and very characteristic of this part of north-west Essex.

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 Saffron Walden. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but we do sweep quite a few pubs across the area, these include: The Railway Arms in Saffron Walden, The Plough at Debden, The Crown at Little Walden, The Bell at Great Bardfield and The Lion and the Three Tuns at Finchingfield.

The Kings Arms in Saffron Walden is an interesting pub, it always has a selection of real ales on at any one time and is quite an old Heritage building. It is Grade II Listed Building: Listing No: 1275521, Date listed: 01 Nov 1972. Debbie the landlady is very friendly and runs a great pub and is always very welcoming. They have live music at the pub and a regular quiz night. The pub has two large open fire chimneys, one in the function room and one in the snug and it has a Villager Flatmate Wood-Burning Stove in the bar area. All in all it is the quintessential English market town pub and well worth a visit.

 See the Kings Arms Face Book Page: https://www.facebook.com/kingsarmsSW/?locale=en_GB

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 option – A cold chimney will not draw and there is no heat in a smoke pellet, so the chimney must be warmed prior to smoke testing), all windows and doors in the room are closed so that there is no additional draft. A smoke pellet is placed into the inside of the stove or open fire. All smoke should remain inside the stove and be seen leaving the pot, also smoke in an open fire should be seen entering the flue and leaving the pot. No smoke should be entering the room from the stove or open fire. If this is not the case, for example smoke is observed to exit a number of pots or enter upstairs room then the chimney has failed and further investigation is required, i.e. a type 1 integrity smoke test and/or CCTV investigation.

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 stove as I would do to sweep any stove, first removing all the supporting fire-bricks to drop the primary vermiculite baffle plate and then removing the secondary baffle which sits just above it. Unfortunately, on top of the secondary baffle was a rather large, dead Jackdaw. By the look of him he has been there a good few weeks. I the customer had called us earlier when they first heard the bird in the chimney then we might have been able to remove him alive. I’m guessing that it was a male bird as he was so large.

All this said, I did like the look of the stove, I only sweep a handful of these Scan stoves, but they always have the appearance of having been well designed and put together. I thought too that it looked very good in an old, sensitively renovated property; the juxtaposition of old and contemporary working well together.

Scan Stoves are a Danish company founded in Odense only in 1978. Henning Krog Iversen founded the company Krog Iversen (later Scan A/S) in small premises in Odense. At the time it was quite ground-breaking to produce wood-burning stoves in steel sheet instead of cast iron, and there were not many demands concerning combustion technique and environmental protection. The first wood-burning stoves were no more than “oil drums” with doors, but at Krog Iversen we took pride in producing high-end designed pieces of warm furniture with advanced combustion technique right from the start.

Scan pride themselves on their modern Scandinavian designs and recognizable ‘clean lines’. The company is now owned by the Norwegian stove company Jotul. Obviously Jotul have kept this brand because of their modern, contemporary designs. Whereas many Jotul designs have a very traditional or retro appearance. Clearly the Scan brand gives Jotul a much broader design appeal to a mass market – Jotul sell stoves all over the world.

All Krog Iversen scan stoves can be bought through licensed dealerships in the UK.

https://www.scan-stoves.co.uk/

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 interesting church, I hope my recent blogs have sparked an interest in people and a desire to visit St John the Baptiste church at Danbury. Enjoy.

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 Baptiste at Danbury boasts a wealth of intricately carved medieval bench ends depicting an array of designs, from biblical scenes to mythical creatures. These carvings which date back to the 13^th Century and offer a glimpse into the cultural and religious symbolism of the era. They include a number of recognizable animals like an Owl, Squirrel, lion, and a monkey, along with a number of mythical beasts including gryphons and dragons. They are frequently humorous in the intention and execution, clearly the medieval carvers had a laugh whilst creating them and were not shy in poking fun at the clergy. I would highly recommend a visit to the church of St John the Baptiste at Danbury for all history lovers, there is so much to see, it is a real gem.

The church of St John the Baptiste at Danbury has three very rare oak carved effigies of Norman Crusader Knights which date from the 13^th century. Interestingly, they can be dated with some certainty due to the armour that they are wearing. The two in the North aisle date from between 1272 to 1307, and the one in the south aisle from a little time later. The fact that the knights have crossed legs is indicative that they had been on crusade or less likely that they were church builders. As the last crusade was in 1270, it may be assumed that the effigies represent members of the St Clere family who first endowed the church and were responsible for the rebuilding of the north aisle. Apparently one of the north wall effigies was selected by Nikolaus Pevsner for inclusion in the exhibition of European Gothic Art staged in the Louvre Paris in 1968.

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 travels sweeping for the Bishop of Chelmsford. The church has a wealth of historical details and is on a site of much older historical importance. So much so, I will probably spread this visit over a number of blogs, the reason being that there is too much of interest to simply cram into just one blog.

The church is actually located within Danbury Camp a large late Iron Age hill fort which encompasses the top of the hill which is one of the highest points in Essex. The earthwork is constructed with a single ditch and rampart, but it is in a poor state of preservation with much of it having been lost due to erosion over time, and a significant portion has been built over. Archaeological excavations of the site occurred in 1974 and 1977, complemented by smaller investigations spurred by local construction. The minor dig have found little to nothing but the two major ones have uncovered Iron Age artefacts as well as several Saxon items. Notably, these finds included loom weights, pottery shards, and a double-sided Saxon bone comb, suggesting domestic occupation from the 8th to the 10th century. While the re-occupation of Iron Age hill forts was common in southwestern England, it is much rarer in Essex. The reoccupation in the Anglo-Saxon period may possibly be due to people using it as a safe haven from Viking raiders or used by Danish Vikings as a defensive base hence the place name Danbury (Dane Bury).

The church itself is an amazing treasure trove of historical features, so much so I will spreading this across a number of separate blogs dealing specifically with the carved medieval bench ends and the three life-size effigies of crusader knights. The church is dedicated to St John the Baptist. In this blog I will just deal with the fabric of the church. There was probably a wooden Anglo-Saxon church at the site, but it has now disappeared completely. The oldest part of the church is its north aisle, which is thought to have been part of a chapel endowed by the St Clere family in 1290. It is unusual in that it has a barrel-vaulted roof, which is usually a feature in west country churches, not East Anglian churches. There are also fragments of medieval wall paintings above the end window in the north aisle and also in the chancel. The roof bosses in the north aisle represent kings and queens of England, mainly the Edward’s and date to the 14^th Century.

The tower is 14^th Century in date and was erected shortly after the construction of the of the nave and aisles. The tower is built of flint rubble and probably has over a million flint pebbles within its construction. There are pieces of Roman brick/tile that can be found in the lower part of the tower and the lower part of the north wall. The timber framed spire dates to the 15^th century and is roofed with wooden shingles.

One of the more intriguing features of St. John the Baptist Church is its squint, a small aperture in the wall that allowed worshippers to view the altar from a side chapel. This architectural element, also known as a “hagioscope,” was designed to enable those who were unable to be in the main body of the church, such as lepers or penitents, or those who didn’t wish to worship with the main crowd, like the gentry, to still participate in the Mass.

The church suffered bomb damage in 1941 during World war II, which was repaired in the 1950’s.

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 as some sea mist and we managed to do lots of our favourite walks with the dogs. Rodger, Maggie and Millie were particularly tiered by the ned of the holiday. We were also able to catch up with our friend Dom and Rachel as well as Netty Patterson who was staying at West Bay whilst we were there. The photo is of the old Villager stove in Barn Owls Cottage where we were staying.

The picture of the chimney is interesting, as this was taken at Lyscombe where Emma did a heritage project at work for the Dorset Wildlife Trust. We did a walk around around the whole site which the Dorset Wildlife Trust are turning into a nature/history reserve. The site has stunning scenery as well as being historically fascinating. There are numerous earth works including a number of large Neolithic Cross Dykes, numerous Bronze Age Barrows, a Roman period settlement and agricultural enclosures and a disappeared Medieval Village in the bottom of the combe. At the centre of the site there is a thatched Medieval pilgrims chaple and priests house, a disappeared manor house an Medieval barn and stone fish weir. The photo of the chimney is from the ruined Medieval priests house.

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 on the inside over the roof ridge. These are said to be “Witches seats”. It was said that on Friday nights at low tide Guernsey witches congregate on Grande Greve to dance back to back across the sands. On such occasions it was wise to have your cottage protected by Witches’ Stones as a witch returning from the coven may wish to take a rest on one of these short chimney ledges. Failing to find one she could well slip down the chimney and take up permanent residence in your house.

Originally built to prevent rain water seeping through the join between the chimney and the thatched roof, these ledges provide a convenient perch for night time flyers, as do the fireplace corbels, supporting stones protruding through the gable wall. Although modern buildings no longer use thatch many of their chimneys still carry Witches’ Seats, just to be on the safe side.