Perhaps not the most interesting of stoves, but certainly a rareaty in these parts; a Fireline UK FX5 Multi-Fuel Stove that I swept recently at an address in Great Bardfield. The customers had inherited this stove, along with a Charnwood C-Five Wood-Burning stove in their kitchen when they recently mode into the address. Some of their neighbours had kindly referred then to Walden Sweeps when they had enquired about getting their chimneys swept. Perhaps not the most inspiring of stoves, the customers said that they had lit it on a number of occasions since moving in and they it had worked very well and warmed the sitting room up to a nice temperature. They went on to say that when it was lit along with the Charnwood stive in the kitchen, the house was lovely and warm and there was no need to have the central heating on.

Fireline UK are not a company I was aware of as I had never seen any of their stoves before, let alone the FX5 Multi-Fuel Stove. Looking at the plate that came with the stove it shows that Fireline are a subsidiary of Charlton & Jenrick Ltd of Telford. A google search revealed that this company maked a number of different brands along with Fireline, including Infinity HD, Katell, Purevision and Paragon. The company sales blurb states that they have been manufacturing stoves and fireplaces since 1986 and was founded by Barry Charlton and Bill Jenrick and now employs over 125 people across two sites.

Charlton & Jenrick Ltd

Unit D
Stafford Park 2
Telford
Shropshire
TF3 3AR

T 01952 200 444
F 01952 200 480
E sales@charltonandjenrick.co.uk

Contact Us

I recently swept this Meg 4.5Kw Contemporary Multi-Fuel Stove at an address in Littlebury – Had to ask the customer what type of stove it was as I had not come across this make before. She informed me that it was a Meg Stove, but that she had very little paperwork for the installation as she had not had the stove installed having only moved into the address last year. She was very happy with the stove’s operation stating that it more than adequately heated the room even though it is rather diminutive in size! The customer stated that she only burnt wood on the stove, despite it being manufactured as a multi-fuel stove. A google search revealed that Meg Stoves was founded in 2009 with a brief to combine contemporary design with precision engineering.

The company is based in Hooton, on the South Wirral / Cheshire border, and all manufacturing takes place at the Meg factory. Many manufacturers claim their products are made in the UK, when in fact they are largely produced overseas and only the final assembly stage takes part on these shores. At Meg Stoves sheet steel is laser cut, folded, welded, finished and painted all under one roof, nothing is subcontracted out so there is complete control from start to finish.

All Meg multi-fuel stoves burn with an efficiency of at least 80% and burning wood means you are using a carbon neutral energy supply.  Amazingly low emissions of less than 0.2% CO, five times better than even the strict European Standard, also mean that the whole range is Defra Approved for burning wood and smokeless fuels in smoke-controlled areas. Giant ash bins to ensure infrequent emptying and ultra-resilient stainless-steel grates are two more of the benefits offered, put simply; only a Meg fire will do.

Yes, it has been a year when I have taken a large number of bird’s nests out of chimneys all across the area. Many more than I have in other years, with customers who are now spending larger amounts of time at home due to Covid and home working, many chimneys that have not been used previously are now being pressed into service. In some ways doing birds nests is the Bain of a chimney sweeps life. Of course, these nests were only removed when the birds were not nesting, as this is illegal. So, none of these jackdaw nests were removed between mid-March to Mid-August. There is an exception to this rule, nests can be removed for safety reasons and only if you have a current License from the Ministry to do so. I keep a copy of my License on the van but have never actually had to use it.

They are time consuming to remove from the chimney and it is frequently dirty work as the nest is often packed with soil, bird droppings and frequently dead birds of other vermin as well as being mixed with old soot that lines the chimney. Plenty of dust sheeting is always required.

As the Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps point out, it is Jackdaws that cause a problem for people wishing to use their chimneys. There are around 1.4 million pairs of Jackdaws in the UK! Jackdaws love to set-up home in chimneys. They generally nest in dark enclosed spaces from March / April, depending on the weather. Emily Bignell, Supporter Advisor for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said that nests found in chimneys were most often jackdaws. She added: “All birds and their nests are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981). The birds cannot legally be removed for being a nuisance or an inconvenience.” Lawson Wight, from the Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps, said: “As the RSPB says, there can be legal obligations. However, if the nest represents a danger to the occupants of the house it’s a different matter. Seek advice from a professional sweep as individual situations can vary.”

Last summer I went to an address in Radwinter to sweep an ILD 1 Wood-burning stove. As I began to dismantle the stove, I discovered that almost a third of the rear firebrick was missing and that a lot of the vermiculite from the brick was crumbled across the floor of the firebox. The customer told me that the had been experiencing problems with wasps down the chimney and that wasps had built a number of large nests in the garden over the summer. Now I know that wasps chew up wood into a pulp in order to build their hexagonal paper nests, but I had never heard or seen them chew up vermiculite board??? Clearly, they see it as an available, wood like material that was easily chewed and just made best use of it. To do so they were flying down the chimney, negotiating their way around the two baffles into the firebox, chewing the rear brick and then making their way out the stove and chimney and back to their nests. How very resourceful of them, its amazing how fantastic nature and animal behaviour can be! Not so good for the customer, I had to order her a new firebrick from ILD at some cost!

For this week’s blog, here is a rather unusual stove that comes all the way from Chile in South America, a Bosca Firepoint 360 Multi-Fuel Stove. I recently came across this stove in a house in Stoke-By-Clare and just had to put it in my blog as I had not come across one of these before. It was not the easiest stove to work on, as to access the flue I had to unbolt the baffle, all ways a trick process inside a stove as there was little room to move the socket and the bolts do tend to get baked into the stove. I managed it though with the assistance of a little WD40!

Reading the label affixed to the bottom of the stove it would appear that at the time the stove was installed, Bosca Stoves were imported into the UK by Yeoman Stoves. This is still the case, a Google search of Yeomans website revealed – https://www.yeomanstoves.co.uk/special-promotion-bosca-bonus-continues/

With three different Bosca stoves being offered to the UK maket, the Bosca Limit 350, the Limit 350S and the Limit 380 a 7Kw rated stove.

I have recently successfully completed the NVQ in Chimney Sweeping, this had long been delayed by the Covid lockdown conditions. The NVQ was split into two main sections, a knowledge section, and a practical sweeping assessment. I had completed the knowledge section sometime ago, prior to lockdown, but what with all the covid restrictions I was only able to complete the practical sweeping assessment in the spring.

The knowledge section included a number of specific areas of learning, including: health and safety, the different types of chimney testing and how to complete chimney testing, the principles of combustion, chimney sweeping techniques and tools, the sweeping process, the different types of chimney terminals, the different types of flues and chimneys, Building Regulations (Approved Document J), fuel types and carbon monoxide, Lining old chimneys, New technical information and information on the industry in general. All in all, quite a comprehensive list of learning out comes I think you will agree.

The practical sweeping assessment involved me completing a normal day’s work whilst being followed around by an assessor who watched and filmed everything I did. I had selected a day where I had a large variety of different kinds of work, to give the best impression of my ability. This included a number of different kinds of wood-burning stoves, some of which were lined and some of which were not, open fires and a cooking range. Given the variety of work I was also able to use a variety of different sweeping techniques, including manual sweeping with brush and rods, power sweeping using click rods and a drill and Viper sweeping (rods on a reel).

I think it is reassuring for all my customers to know that I have undertaken this course of learning and I have successfully completed this qualification.

I thought everyone might be interested in the sweeping job we completed not so very long ago at Moyns Park close to Birdbrook. Expecting the usual job, I was rather surprised to find myself driving through a couple of miles of parkland to reach a moated Elizabethan country house with chimneys over 20 meters tall! As you can see in the photographs, the chimneys are tall, elegant Elizabethan chimneys, which are in groups of three with wind gaps between. At one time there probably would have been four groups of three chimneys, but as you can see the end group of stacks is now missing and has been replaced by an ugly square stack. With the original four groups of chimneys the house would have had an elegant symmetry. The house is an amazing place, we entered the house across a foot bridge spanning the 40 foot wide moat. In front of the house is a formal garden constructed from yew topiary in various formal designs. We swept the inglenook chimney in the great hall, something that took a little time to complete! It was rather a large opening inglenook, so thank heavens for aluminum stiffening rods, that’s all I can say!

The Wikipedia entry for Moyns Park tells us the following: Moyns Park is a Grade I listed Elizabethan country house in Steeple Bumpstead, north Essex, England.

The home of the Gent family, until the late 19th century, was once owned by Major-General Cecil Robert St John Ives, maternal grandfather of Ivar Bryce, the next owner. Bryce was a close friend of the author Ian Fleming, who stayed at the house in the summer of 1956. When Bryce’s wife, Josephine Hartford, an A&P heiress and sister of Huntington Hartford, died in 1992, she left the estate to Lord Ivar Mountbatten and George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven. Ivar Bryce’s first cousin Janet Mercedes Bryce had been married to David Mountbatten and was the mother of Ivar and George Mountbatten. Lord Ivar Mountbatten lived in the house with his wife, Penelope Thompson, before selling it in 1997. It is said that Fleming made final changes to his novel From Russia, with Love in the house. The house was also the location for several Hammer Horror films. The house was also used as a residential Riding School in and around 1949, with courses in dressage, show jumping and short B.H.S courses. The chief instructor was C. Coombs MBE.

The name Moyns is believed to have its origins in the name of the Le Moyne family who under Gilbert Le Moyne remained in England after the Norman invasion of 1066. The family ran through several major and minor lines of nobles and gentry such as the De Warrens, Gents, Darbys, Dalstons (of Cumberland), and many others. The family is now linked to many others by marriage, e.g. Speakmans, Boutflowers, Glasses, Chenevix-Trenchs, and more.

The area in the Le Moynes once had lands that encompassed Hedingham Castle and other villages over a swathe of Essex. The Gents held their first court at Moyns in the early 16th century and the estate grew and continued to do so under Sir Thomas Gent (Queen Elizabeth’s Baron of the Exchequer, Sergeant-at-Law and later judge).

According to an article in The Essex Countryside of May 1965 by GC Harper, the house was once moated, and takes its name from its first owner who had it built, Robert de Fitzwilliam le Moigne in the early C14, but little but the SW wing remains from C15. It remained in that family for 200 years, then passed by marriage to William Gent. His son Thomas became MP for Maldon in 1571 and a ‘trusted assistant’ to Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth 1’s Secretary of State & spymaster, whence he rose to 2nd Baron of the Exchequer. He sat in judgement at the trial of the conspirators of the Babington Plot to assassinate the Queen and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. His wealth & status led him to rebuild the west front, completed by his son Henry, as he died in 1593. Thomas signed a petition to Walsingham requesting he write to the governors of the Dutch congregation in Colchester & demand that 20-30 families return to Halstead to resume the cloth trade there, but to no avail. George Gent d. 1818 was a magistrate for more than 60 years. The right to appoint the headmaster of the school in Steeple Bumpstead belonged until c.1835 to the owner of Moyns. The Moyns occupancy ceased in 1879 when it was sold to Major General Cecil Robert St John Ives, whose grandson John Bryce occupied it in the 1960s. The gardens of the 200-acre estate had yew topiary, and the paths were said to be planted to a plan by Lord Bacon, with a bowling green one of the oldest.

Here is an unusual contemporary stove, a Stuv 30 Wood-burning Stove that I Swept recently at an address in Purton End. The customer has two of these Stuv 30 Wood-burning Stoves, but only really uses one of them on a regular basis during the winter months. They are certainly a very contemporary stove and can actually be unlocked so that the fire-box can be directed to a particular part of any room. The stove itself has a double baffle arrangement which makes its operation very efficient.

Stuv are a Belgian company with a large factory at Bois-de-Villers. They pride themselves on their innovative stove design. Their Company blurb states: Stûv applies the principles of Design Thinking to all of its activities as a way of approaching design and improvement. According to Stûv, design is a technical, aesthetic and functional solution applied to the product, so that it fully and sustainably responds to the user’s expectations. The simplicity of the end result guarantees its sustainability. Design by design, part of our DNA. Stûv has an in-house design team that gets involved in all aspects of the company’s projects.

Stuv Stoves

Rue Jules Borbouse 4, 5170 Bois-de-Villers, Belgium

T: 0423 958 294

https://www.stuv.com/en-gb/page/contact-details

Here is a real rarity, an Esse Jeunesse Number 3 Multi-Fuel Stove that we discovered on our recent sweeping visit to Wales. This example was in a farmhouse in Carmarthen. The owner actually thought that it was a French stove. Clearly, with its green enamel finish it is very similar to the enameled French stoves of the early 19oo’s, but on closer inspection it is obviously a British made Esse. It is certainly an unusual stove, and the owner says that it is always a talking point when people see it for the first time, but I wouldn’t say its what I would call an attractive stove? Still, they say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

Esse are a long-established company who commenced production of range cookers in 1854 under the direction of a Scot James Smith. In the early 1800’s James decided to emigrate to America. So at the age of just 16 James set off to make his fortune in a romantic style, on foot. He had heard that a barque was soon to set sail from Greenock to New York. In New York he apprenticed himself to a metal worker, his friend Wellstood helping him by signing his indenture papers as his ‘guardian’. fter completing his apprenticeship, James worked with a manufacturer in the metal work business in New Orleans before setting up on his own in State Street, Jackson Mississippi. The business appeared to have prospered immediately because after just two years, James could afford to visit Scotland to marry the girl he chose nine years before, at the age of sixteen. Her name was Anne Wells Brown and they set off for a new life in Jackson. While the business prospered, Anne’s health did not. The hot climate was wearing her down, and after a dozen years of it, it became evident that something had to be done.James made the biggest decision of his life. He had successfully been making and selling stoves in America and it occurred to him that the type he specialised in was unknown in Britain. He would go home with his wife and five children and set up business there. So it was that in 1854 James returned to Scotland and made arrangements to set up a business making ESSE stoves. He returned to the States to hand over his old business to his younger brother, Robert A Smith, and his adventures began all over again. On September 17th ‘SS Arctic’, the steamer that he was aboard, was involved in a collision with the ‘Vesta’. James spent three days and two nights awaiting rescue aboard a makeshift raft before being rescued by the ‘Cambria’. James returned to Scotland and the business of manufacturing ESSE cookers and stoves flourished.

By the mid-1900s, ESSE stoves, fires and range cookers were warming all manner of households – from royalty to remote rural homesteads. Early ESSE stoves were primarily designed for the burning of different types of coal. Circa 1910 the ESSE Pioneer Stove was an innovative wood burning stove. The design allowed smoke re-burning to take pace above the firebox before the waste gases entered the flue. Many modern stoves claim to be the originator of this idea, but the ESSE Pioneer refutes these claims. The Pioneer was made in three sizes. Today, wood burning has had something of a renaissance and ESSE makes dedicated woodburning cookers and stoves, alongside multi-fuel appliances. Florence Nightingale was passionate about ESSE cookers and would use no other brand at her hospital in Balaclava. Famous British explorers, Shackleton and Scott, also relied on ESSE to provide hot food and warmth to their expedition team in some of the world’s coldest and most inhospitable places. This tradition is followed by top British climber Alan Hinkes, who uses a specially adapted ESSE Solo to heat his base camp in the Himalayas. In the 1985 an Esse range cooker achieved its screen debut, appearing with Special Agent 007 James Bond in a ‘View to a Kill.’

https://www.esse.com/

I felt that it was time for something slightly different for this week’s blog. We have been sweeping for the Diocese of Chelmsford for around two years now, completing the solid fuel maintenance for the Vicarages, Rectories and rental properties belonging to the Diocese. In consequence we have simultaneously been able to visit a significant number of medieval churches and indulge our passion for history. Most medieval churches are like an organic historical record, having in a way evolved over time and evidencing any number of building phases over time. An echo of the various people who have cared for and worshipped at the church over a long period of time. I have included here some of my favorites that we have visited in the past few months. If this blog is popular I might think about making it a regular thing as we do get to visit so many beautiful medieval churches every month.

In this blog I will mention St Mary the Virgin at Great Henny near Sudbury, St Andrews at Ashingdon near Rochford, St Andrews at Althorne near Burnham-on-Crouch.

St Mary the Virgin at Great Henny

The church at Great Henny exhibits sections of 11^th, 12^th and 14^th century work, but is most notable for its oak shingled broach spire roof, which is a real rarity. The church is also notable for it rather remote rural location and is set some distance from the village. It is very picturesque viewing the church across the corn fields with its lonely spire striking up on the skyline. Like many isolated rural churches in East Anglia its location describes the ravages of the Black Death, where whole villages shifted their loci away from their original site to escape the effects of the pestilence. The church roof is also notable, dating from the 15^th century it exhibits moulded tiebeams, and braces and queen post trusses. The tower shows three stages of building activity, dating from the of 11^th, and 12^th centuries.

St Andrew’s at Ashingdon

The beautiful and very historic church of St Andrew Ashingdon sits on top of a hill high above the River Crouch and from the east end of the church has panoramic views of the surrounding farmland across towards the neighbouring village of Canewdon. The church dates from the late Saxon period, but most of the existing fabric is medieval.

The church is actually rather famous for its links to the Battle of Ashingdon (Assandune -The Hill of Ash Trees in Old English). Ashingdon, or, more correctly, the land to the east of the village, is the presumed site of the Battle of Ashingdon on 18 October 1016. Ashingdon Hill is the likely location of King Edmund Ironside‘s camp, and it faces the field of battle between Ashingdon and Canewdon. Canewdon Church sits atop another hill, and beside Canewdon village was probably the site of King Canute‘s camp. Early chronicles report of fierce fighting at “Hyde Wood”, nearly halfway between the two villages. Ultimately, Edmund and the English lost the battle in which it is said that that the flower of the English nobility were killed allowing the Danish Viking Canute to seize the thrown of England. During the course of the battle, Eadnoth the Younger, Bishop of Dorchester, was killed by Canute’s men whilst in the act of saying mass on behalf of Edmund Ironside’s men. According to Liber Eliensis, Eadnoth’s hand was first cut off for a ring, and then his body cut to pieces. The Ealdorman Ulfcytel Snillingr also died in the battle. The Anglo-Saxon Chronical reports that the battle was lost because of the treachery of Earl Eadric Streona of Mercia and his troops, who changed sides when he saw how the battle was going and withdrew his soldiers from the field. Although King Edmund survived the battle and brokered a peace with Canute, he died a short time later, it is believed by treachery, allowing Canute to seize the throne.

The parish church of St Andrew which lies on Ashingdon Hill, one of the parish’s three hills, was built in 1020, 4 years after the battle, by the order of the king, ‘Canute the Great‘ of Denmark. The grade II listed parish church of Saint Andrew’s is also called “Ashingdon Minster”. The first priest at Ashingdon was one of King Canute’s personal priests, a young man named Stigand, who 46 years later was the Archbishop of Canterbury who crowned King Harold and officiated at the coronation of William The Conqueror (William I), both in 1066. The priest appears on the Bayeux Tapestry with the caption “STIGANT ARChIEPS.” The church is now dedicated to Saint Andrew, but it is believed that it was dedicated earlier to Saint Michael, who was considered to be a military saint, and churches dedicated to him are frequently located on a hill. In 2006 Southend author, poet and historian, Ian Yearsley, wrote and published a commemorative epic poem about the battle, called The Battle of Ashingdon (1016).

St Andrew’s at Althorne

 St Andrews is a beautiful grade 2 listed church sited on the North bank of the River Crouch. The church is largely late 14^th Century Perpendicular in style. It was altered in the 16^th Century and then restored by the Victorians. The majority of the church is constructed from stone rubble dressed with knapped flint, Limestone and Clunch. The chancel is of Red Brick in English Bond and it has a roof of handmade red clay peg tiles. It gives the church a very attractive and regal appearance, giving the impression of a very high status church, over and above that of a simple village parish church. Above the West doorway in the tower there is an inscription in black letter ‘+ Orate pro animabus dominorum Johannis Wylson et Johannis Hyll quorum animabus propicietur deus amen’, and which is decayed at the bottom. What John Betjamin would describe as ‘most pleasing decay’! In the nave there are brasses (1) of William Hyklott, 1508, ‘which paide for the werkmanship of the wall of this churche’, figure in civil costume, Trinity, and indents of 2 children (2) to Margaret Hyklott, 1502, figures of 2 daughters, one habited as a nun, a Virgin and child, indent only of main figure. Under the font is a floor slab to Elizabeth Gordon, 1701. There is also a richly carved font with octagonal bowl dating from the 14^th Century. On it there are carved figures of the baptism of a king, a man and woman, the martyrdom of St Andrew, defaced angels, a king and a queen and a seraph.