In line with my blogs about rare or unusual stoves, how about this Dik Guerts Odin Front Wood-Burning Stove recently swept in Bishops Stortford? I think that it certainly has the wow factor with its strikingly unusual and contemporary appearance? I can’t say that I have ever swept a chimney for such an unusual stove. Famously, the Norse God Odin only had one eye, and this stove looks rather like a large eye, hence I guess why the name Odin Front? Apparently, Odin He sacrificed his eye in Mimir’s well and he threw himself on his spear Gungnir in a kind of symbolic, ritual suicide. He then hanged himself in Yggdrasil, the tree of life, for nine days and nine nights in order to gain knowledge of other worlds and be able to understand the runes.

Dik Geurts stoves are a Dutch brand and have been manufactured in Holland since 1981. They are a household name in Holland for their distinctive products, although anyone wishing to purchase a stove hear has to go through a recommended UK stockiest. Dik Geurts are now a trade name of a larger company called DRU which has an even longer history in Holland, commencing operation as a new blast furnace on 17^th May 1754 under proprietor Johan Baptist van den Bergh and some local entrepreneurs. They furnace was in a small town called Ulft where the company is still located today. In full the company is called Koninklijke Diepenbrock en Reigers of Ulft, which is a proper mouthful I think you will agree, so they call themselves DRU for short.

This unusual stove was installed by the Cut Maple Stove Company. They are located just the other side of Sturmer going towards Wixoe on the A1017 – Their show room is in what used to be the Little Chef, but you wouldn’t recognize it as such now! They have a fantastic array of wood-burning stoves on display and importantly for me they sell all sorts of accessories to help with minor repairs. These include; heat resistant stove paint, ceramic rope of various dimensions and cement and fireboard for cutting bricks. As well as selling and installing stoves, they can install liners and cowls. The show rooms are very attractive and well laid out and the staff are very helpful. There address and contact details are as follows:

Cut Maple Stove & Fire Company,

Sturmer Road,

New England,

Halstead CO9 4BB

Telephone: 01440 788788

Email: cutmaple@fireplacesetc.co.uk

Website: http://www.fireplacesetc.co.uk

Continuing this week with the theme of unusual or rare stoves, I came across this Portway 1 Multi-Fuel Stove at an address in Thaxted recently. I had actually heard of Portway Stoves previously, but I had never come across on whilst out sweeping, so this places this stove in the category of rare as opposed to unusual. It was a tidy little stove though, and one that the customer is very satisfied with. Despite its diminutive size the customer reports that when it is in operation it pumps out the heat and warms what is a large room more than satisfactorily. The installation also could boast an impressive stainless-steel factory-made chimney with a number of 45 degree turns in it. I swept this using 10mm power sweeping rods.

Portway Stoves are not a local company, they are based up north in Stoke-On-Trent and have a long history dating back to the 1900’s. Portway multifuel and wood burning stoves began in the early 1800’s when the owner of an ironmongery store took inspiration from the very first enclosed metal stoves which first appeared in North America at the end of the 1700’s and custom built his own stove to heat his Halstead based store.

Charles Portway’s design proved to be so successful that a neighbouring shopkeeper asked Portway to build a stove to heat his store also. Soon afterwards Portway set up a small foundry manufacturing solid fuel stoves that were so successful they lasted up to the 1980’s almost without any change.

The beauty behind the success of Portway’s stoves was in their efficiency. The stoves burned so slowly that they extracted the maximum amount of heat from the fuel. The stoves were named ‘Tortoise’ stoves and proudly produced with the motto ‘Slow but Sure’ displayed on the front. It was the first heating appliance to offer fuel efficiency as a major selling point making its role in the development of our industry of great significance today. Robert Higgs, the chief executive of the Heating and Ventilating contractors association argues the Portway was the “founding father of energy efficiency”.

Portway’s stoves were used to heat churches and halls as well as homes and 19th Century stoves displaying the iconic ‘Tortoise’ trademark can still be found today, making it one of the oldest, most resilient products in the history of heating. Even today, at 80% efficiency, Portway stoves are amongst the most efficient multifuel stoves on the market. This means that you need to burn less fuel to get more heat compared to similar products on the market.

Portway multifuel stoves are capable of burning a wide range of natural and manufactured fuels. Wood is a renewable and carbon-neutral energy source since a tree will use up more carbon during the course of its lifetime than is produced when it is burned. Thus, making the use of wood the most environmentally friendly energy source available today. Both hard woods and soft woods can be used in our stoves. Portway stoves will also burn a number of other fuels such as, peat, straw, sawdust briquettes, anthracite, lignite and most natural and manufactured mineral fuels. Each stove is made from 96% easily recyclable material and all cast parts, such as doors and grates, are manufactured from 70% recycled iron. Every Portway stove carries independently tested CE Approval to standard EN13240 and are approved for use in smoke free zones when burning anthracite or any other authorized smokeless fuel. They can also be used in smoke free zones in the Republic of Ireland when burning wood or peat briquettes.

Portway Stoves

BFM Europe Ltd,

Gordon Banks Drive,

Trentham Lakes,

Staffordshire, ST4 4TJ

Tel: 01782 339000

Email via website

https://www.portwaystoves.com/

Recently I seem to be coming across stove manufactured by companies I have never come across before, or unusual models of stoves of well-known companies. This frequently has its own challenges in learning how to dismantle a brand of stove you are not familiar with, fortunately most stoves go together in predictable ways that make it self-evident how they come apart and go back together again. I recently came across this Lacunza Levante Wood-Burning Stove at an address in Newport. I guessed wrongly from the name that the stove was an Italian make of stove, however when I got home and Googled it, I found that Lacunza are a Spanish stove company who sell their products through UK stove dealerships.

Lacunza began operations with an iron foundry in the mid 1940’s, the company is based in Alsasua, in Spain. It was in the 1960’s, the company started production of wood burning stoves. Since then, Lacunza has continued evolving as well as increasing their portfolio of products, offering their customers an extensive range. Lacunza now manufacture a huge selection of cast-iron wood burning stoves and fires, as well as wood fired range cookers.

https://www.lacunza.net/it-en/fireplace-stoves

Hopefully this week’s blog links in nicely back to last week’s blog about the Dean Forge 105SE Multi-Fuel Stove I recently swept in Great Sampford. In that blog I mentioned that I had never come across the Dean Forge 105SE before, whilst sweeping numerous examples of their other stove models across the area. I include here, photographs of the Dartmoor, the Croft Cleanburn and Sherton models, but only because I can only fit these into the post. I also sweep numerous examples of the Huccaby, the Baker, the Foxworthy and the Woodbury models. I particularly like the coloured metallic finishes that can be chosen in a number of the dean Forge models. These coloured stoves really are quite attractive and distinctive, making a prominent statement in a room, that’s for sure.

Dean Forge are a British stove manufacture, based in Dean Prior Buckfastleigh and Marsh Barton Exeter in Devon. lose to Dartmoor National park and the South Hams, two areas of outstanding natural beauty. Dean Forge production facility is conveniently located beside the A38 between Exeter and Plymouth and in easy reach of Torbay, Dartmoor and the surrounding area. The company was established in 1969 and are now one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of Eco 2022 compliant wood-burning and multi-fuel stoves.

Dean Forge, Dean Prior,
Buckfastleigh,
Devon, TQ11 0LS

T: 01364 643 574

Dean Forge, Unit 21, Norman Court Business Estate,
Budlake Road
Marsh Barton
Exeter, Devon
EX2 8PY
T: 01392 348335

email at
stoves@deanforge.co.uk

Contact Us

The reason I have included this stove in my blog is the fact that although I sweep many Dean Forge stoves, probably models from the entire range, I have never come across the 105SE before. Although internally it is easy to work on and has a similar construction to all the other Dean Forge models, externally it looks like nothing else that they make. It has a much more contemporary and stylish look than many of there other stoves, which have in my opinion a much more traditional feel. I think in the right setting, as here in a modern house, it is a very attractive stylish stove. It has a nice large stove glass to see the fire and a copious fire-box that can accommodate reasonably large logs. Full marks to the Dean Forge designers.

Dean Forge are a British stove manufacture, based in Dean Prior Buckfastleigh and Marsh Barton Exeter in Devon. lose to Dartmoor National park and the South Hams, two areas of outstanding natural beauty. Dean Forge production facility is conveniently located beside the A38 between Exeter and Plymouth and in easy reach of Torbay, Dartmoor and the surrounding area. The company was established in 1969 and are now one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of Eco 2022 compliant wood-burning and multi-fuel stoves.

Dean Forge, Dean Prior,
Buckfastleigh,
Devon, TQ11 0LS

T: 01364 643 574

Dean Forge, Unit 21, Norman Court Business Estate,
Budlake Road
Marsh Barton
Exeter, Devon
EX2 8PY
T: 01392 348335

email at
stoves@deanforge.co.uk

Contact Us

I recently swept the flue of this rather attractive Dik Geurts Ivar 5 Wood-Burning Stove at an address in Great Sampford. I was quite taken with this stove as it has a nice big piece of stove glass through which the fire can be seen and a sizable fire box that will take reasonable size logs for a 5Kw stove. To be honest I don’t see that many Dik Geurts stoves on my rounds, sweeping for may be 10 such stoves across the area, so they are relatively rare. Having said this, I think that they are very attractive well-made stoves, and my customers who have them, speak very highly of them. The installation is in a very modern house that was only built around four years ago, consequently the stove installation has two permanently open air-vents positioned either side of the stove in the fireplace. The stove therefore complies with Building Regulations as per Approved Document J.

Dik Geurts stoves are a Dutch brand and have been manufactured in Holland since 1981. They are a household name in Holland for their distinctive products, although anyone wishing to purchase a stove hear has to go through a recommended UK stockiest. Dik Geurts are now a trade name of a larger company called DRU which has an even longer history in Holland, commencing operation as a new blast furnace on 17^th May 1754 under proprietor Johan Baptist van den Bergh and some local entrepreneurs. They furnace was in a small town called Ulft where the company is still located today. In full the company is called Koninklijke Diepenbrock en Reigers of Ulft, which is a proper mouthful I think you will agree, so they call themselves DRU for short.

Yes, we wish all our customers and friends a Very Happy Christmas! And a Happy and much improved New Year. The Christmasy photos are of my own chimneys and Maple Lane in Radwinter during the recent fall of snow in early December – Very festive looking they are too, but they made working that day very difficult indeed! Still, it’s Christmas now and time to put our feet up for a bit in front of a glowing Wood-Burner!

I recently swept the flue of this rather attractive Piazzetta Wood-Burning Stove at an address in Cuttlers Green Thaxted. It is an unusual and somewhat rare stove in this area, in fact I only sweep one other of this kind and that is located in an address in Stebbing. Both these stoves come in this rather attractive Red enameled finish, just the right colour for a Liverpool FC Supporter, come on you Reds!

Piazzata are an Italian company, their write up on their website is as follows: The Piazzetta Group continues to shape its future by relying on people who invest their passion and dedication to develop innovative heating solutions. The story unfolds at the foot of Asolo, a historical town laden with artistic treasures, which is also one of Italy’s manufacturing hubs. The Group has emerged from this backdrop as a large-size company with research and development laboratories, production and logistics facilities, and management offices. A solid industrial reality that offers an extensive range of stoves and fireplaces to satisfy any personal need and taste.

I’ve not seen one of these before, a Sampson Stove – I have had a look on the internet and can find nothing about it or the company that made it? The stove was in a thatched property in Great Chesterford. I swept the flue via an inspection hatch in the elbow joint of the stove pipe at the rear of the appliance. The stove itself has a fixed baffle which cannot be removed to access the flue mouth. I spoke with the customer, who told me that he had bought it from a pub in Great Chesterford when it closed down many years ago! He went on to say that it had been installed in his home ever since and had worked brilliantly without any issues.

Yes, you don’t see many of these Godin stoves around, they are quite rare! Many people actually go over to France to buy these retro stoves. A lot of the ones I see and have included in my blog have a coloured enamel finish to them and are frequently very ornate. This one however has a more traditional matt black finish, like the majority of stoves, I will keep a lookout for any more unusual stoves that I might come across, which I can then include in my blog!

The Godin stove is the foundational of the history of French stove making, and indeed to the history of domestic stove manufacturing as a whole. Before the era of cast iron, domestic fuel took on many forms from the open hearth fire to the clay or stone kiln, but then the 23 year Godin started his business in 1840 making fireplaces in a shed in the centre of Thierache with a loan of about 4,000 francs from his parent, this quickly became too small.

The works soon moved to Guise where he started employing 30 people and in spite of fierce competition his business grew rapidly. The most important reason for this was his innovation. Godin applied for many patents for his products and concentrated on continually improving them both aesthetically and technically, making antique stoves from his era especially valuable.
Godin became a figure to know in French industrial relations. Godin offered his employees living wages or higher at a time of economic downturn, hired from a small pool of people in one geographical area reducing turn over and improving employee reliability.

By the end of the 1900’s, with a further 2000 employees, Godin was dominating the European stove market. Stove designs became ornate and stylised with the advent of the 20^th century and the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. Godin’s stove design in this period did not become as elaborate and decorative as some other companies, such as Deville and Rosières, etc. But the stoves they produced in the early 20^th century were, as always with Godin, extremely efficient and featured superb quality enamelling. Some of these original designs are still in production in the Godin factory today, laying testament to their design and efficiency.