I do see a lot of these around the local area, even though they look very traditional and somewhat antiquated. Surprisingly these appliances are still in production. This is the Stovax Regency Wood-Burning Stove, I recently swept this example at an address in Newport. They are similar in many ways to the combination stoves that are made by other manufacturers, notably Dovre, Nordpeice and Hergom. Many people like to burn them with the doors open so that they have an open fire experience as opposed to a wood-burning stove. However, although aesthetically pleasing, I should not think that this is a very efficient way of burning fuel.

Stovax are a British company established in 1981, based in Exeter, and are the largest manufacturer of stoves and fireplaces in the UK. Stovax also manufacture a number of other stove brands including Yeoman, Dovre, Nordpeis, Lotus and Varde.

https://www.stovax.com/information/about-us/

This is something I don’t see a lot, a Woodwarm insert stove. I sweep a lot of Woodwarm appliances, as can be seen from my previous blogs. The Woodwarm freestanding Fireview is a common stove and I also sweep a number of examples of the Woodwarm freestanding Double-Sided Fireview, but I have never come across a Woodwarm Fireview Insert stove before. This example that I sweep at an address in Sewards End is rather a tidy stove that warms a rather large room effectively.

Not knowing much about Woodwarm Stoves I have done a little internet research and found that like many stove manufactures they are based in the West Country:

The Workshop,
Wheatcroft Farm,
Cullompton,
Exeter,
Devon EX15 1RA

0188435806

https://woodwarmstoves.co.uk/

The manufactures are actually called; Metal Developments Ltd and it is their range of stoves that are termed Woodwarm. The company make a range of stoves, notably the: Phenix, Fireview, Wildwood, Foxfire, and the Kalido Gas.

The companies blurb on their website stresses a concern for environmental issues: Here at Woodwarm we have dedicated over 30 years of production to our customers and very experienced dealers and fitters to tell us what you want from your home fire. We pride ourselves on the ability to respond to both customer needs and government legislations while using cutting edge technology to ensure reliability and workmanship throughout. We strongly believe that it is thanks to our immensely hard-working sales outlets that we have become a market leader in Clean Burning Wood and Multi Fuel heating.

We are very lucky to be located in the beautiful Devon countryside. Environmental issues are always foremost in our minds; we cannot afford to ignore the evidence of global warming. Wood is a sustainable fuel boasting the fact that it also carbon neutral, for this reason we have developed the Wildwood range, a dedicated wood burner range that does not drain the planet of its rich resources. “Please see our environmental policy for our commitments to the future”

Why Woodwarm? We are not the cheapest fire on the market this we are the first to admit, we cannot compete with the mass-produced meaningless market, and so because of this we won’t. Some of our fires are still in use some 30 years on, what else do you have that’s still working at 30 years old? We know how to keep the glass clean, even overnight, we know how to get the maximum use from your fuel, we are unrivalled in our boiler, canopy, fuel, colour, leg, handles, plinth, pedestal, options because we are hand-made here in the UK. You will buy a house for comfort and as an investment, your choice in a stove should be the same.

I do sweep a lot of these Town and Country stoves, this example which I recently swept in Hundon is the Town & Country Thornton Dale Multi-Fuel Stove. The most common models that I come across being the Little Thurlow, the Bransdale and the Thornton Dale. I don’t think they are the chimney sweeps favourite stove to sweep, as they have to be largely dismantled to access the flue. This is not so bad, but if the vermiculite bricks are cracked, as they frequently are, the stove is difficult to reassemble. This said, all the customers who I sweep for who have Town & Country stoves swear by them for their fuel efficiency and heat output. In fact, I have not come across a customer who has a Town & Country stove who is displeased with their performance. Well each to there own!!!

Town and Country Fires is a family run business based in Pickering on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. Once farmers, the Thurlow family took the big decision to diversify and as a consequence started the stove business in 1977.

Gaining a wealth of experience over the years and using a combination of old and new techniques has led to the company developing and manufacturing some of the best, energy efficient, solid fuel and wood burning stoves in the world.

Town & Country stoves

1 Enterprise Way
Thornton Road Industrial Estate,
Pickering, North Yorkshire. YO18 7NA

Telephone: 01751 474 803
Fax: 01751 475 205

https://www.townandcountryfires.co.uk/contact/

I sweep an awful lot of Heta stoves, the vast majority of which have been installed by Cut Maple Stoves from New England Sturma. Most of these tend to be the Heta Inspire 40, 45 and 55, the 45 in particular. However, the other day I came across this rather attractive, modern Heta Scan-Ambition 5 Wood-Burning Stove, a model of Heta that I have worked on only a small number of times. I have seen examples of this stove in Clare, Great Bradley, Western Colville, Haverhill and Saffron Walden where there are a few examples. But it is not by any stretch of the imagination a common stove. Like all Heta stoves, it was a dream to dismantle and put back together following cleaning, but its internal configuration is quite unlike any other Heta Models. It is rather an attractive looking contemporary stove I’m sure you will agree. The customer is certainly pleased with its appearance and performance, telling me that it is very efficient at heating the room as well as being pleasing to the eye.

HETA is a family-owned business, located in Lemvig near the west coast of Jutland in Denmark. This is where HETAs stoves are developed and manufactured from idea to finished product. Today, HETA is selling stoves to customers in 22 countries. HETA was founded in 1972 with Erik Bach at the steering wheel for the first many years. Today, Erik’s two sons, Carsten and Martin Bach, are heading the company.

For the first couple of years, the company produced hot water containers, refrigeration plants, tanks for fishing vessels and feeders for agriculture. In 1984, HETA started a collaboration with L. Lange & Co, a Danish iron foundry in Svendborg, founded by Lars Lange, a manufacturer of old cast iron stoves since 1850. After a few years later, HETA acquired L. Lange & Co’s activities.

In 1989, HETA developed the first of a long series of modern stoves, which laid the foundation for all the stoves in HETAs current range. Today, HETA also manufactures stove inserts, pellet stoves, aqua stoves, thermal mass stoves and outdoor stoves to quality-conscious consumers, not only in Denmark but worldwide.

Heta Stoves

Jupiterej 22

DK-7620 Lemvig

Denmark

https://heta.dk/en/

Recently we revisited one of my favourite Medieval Churches, St Mary the Virgin, Great Henny, to sweep the chimney at the vicarage. The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Great Henny sits on top of a headland with commanding views over the Stour Valley. It is an ancient place of pilgrimage, with its distinctive Oak shingles on the spire, which can be seen above the surrounding fields for miles. A truly beautiful location. If you have the opportunity to visit the church, look for the carvings of mediaeval musicians on the roof beam ends. The pair nearest the chancel are a priest with incense censer, and possibly a deacon with the incense box. There are also two carved demons who guard the chancel. Absolutely fantastic! It is such a beautiful, isolated rural location too, so is well worth a visit.

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.

On my rounds I see very few of these Hergom Stoves, I can think of only two other examples of this make of stove which are both different models and one of which is a large combination stove. This example is one of their more contemporary models, the Hergom E-30M Wood-Burning Stove. The customer states that it is a very efficient stove and throws out plenty of heat, warming the room satisfactorily on even the coldest of winter days. This stove is fitted in what is a very old thatched cottage, with plenty of exposed beams and an old inglenook fire place, and although it is a very contemporary stove, it is strangely not out of place in this setting.

Although the name Hergom would suggest a Scandinavian stove manufacturer, these stoves are actually made in Sabtander in Spain. The companies advertising blurb tells us that: Hergom’s appliances are well designed, efficient with a sophisticated double combustion system. Through there innovative internal structure Hergom stoves provide maximum heat and fuel performance with minimal emissions of unburnt particles into the atmosphere. Hergom is one of Europe’s largest and most established manufacturers of cast iron stoves and cookers. Their stoves are forged its state the art foundry in Santander in northern Spain, with Hergom owning their own foundry they use the finest cast iron as the primary material in their production stoves, they understand cast iron and its resilience as a material for hearth and fireplace products. Durability, unique forming and thermal initia give cast products the edge in the market.

The company manufacture a range of different models of stove including the E20, E30, E40, the Mnachester, the Crafytsbury, the Glance, the Mallorca, the Sere Inset and the Laredo.

Industrias Hergóm

S.L. Soto de la Marina,

Santander,

Cantabria

Spain

+34 942 587 000

comercial@hergom.com

https://hergom.com/gbr/home

As I have previously said, I see plenty retro Coalbrookdale stoves around the area, the vast majority of them are the Little Wenlock model or less so the Severn model. I noticed though I have previously written a blog about the Coalbrookdale Severn and other Coalbrookdale stoves I have not mentioned the Coalbrookdale Little Wenlock model. So, here is an example that I sweep on a regular basis in an address in Abington. I think that it is a statement that says something about how well these stoves were manufactured that so many of the are still in operation around the area. A real testament to a great design and British manufacturing. They certainly don’t make them like they used to!

Coalbrookdale stoves are now made by the Aga Rangemaster company, in the form of an updated range of stoves, one of which is still called the ‘little Wenlock’. The Aga group is a midlands company based in Leamington Spa and has been manufacturing its stoves in a factory in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, since 1930. The first Aga oven was designed by Swedish Nobel Prize-winning physicist Gustaf Dalen in 1922 and production started in the West Midlands seven years later.

Coalbrookdale is a famous Foundry in England that has been credited with some major “firsts” in the field of Iron Casting. The foundry was the site of the first coke-fired iron smelting furnace in the world, built by Abraham Darby in 1708 out of an existing charcoal furnace. The first blast day for the new furnace was 10 January 1709, and from the start, Darby produced cheap iron pots using a new, dry-sand mold technique, with complete success. They casted iron rails for the first trains as well as the parts for the world’s first cast iron bridge, which can still be seen today spanning the River Severn at Iron Bridge.

What I did find of interest whilst conducting my internet searches looking at Coalbrookdale stoves, was that the Coalbrookdale Company has an extremely long and interesting history that goes right back to the birth of the Industrial Revolution and far beyond. In the 12^th Century the area of Coalbrookdale which is in Shropshire fell within the manor of Madeley, which belonged to Much Wenlock Priory. The monks here operated a bloomery (iron foundary) called “Caldebroke Smithy”. In 1536 bloomery recorded as still being in operation, however in 1540 during the dissolution of the Monistaries Much Wenlock Priory was closed by King Henry VIII, but the bloomery continued working. Then in 1544 the “Smethe Place” and “Calbroke Smethe” were leased to a Hugh Morrall. This is believed to refer to the Lower Forge (SJ667038) and Upper Forge (SJ669042). Before in 1545 the abbey’s lands being eventually bought by the king’s Italian physician, Agostino Agostini but he sold them in the same year (presumably at a profit) to a local man called Thomas Lawley. Then in 1572 the manor was acquired by John Brooke, who constructed a number of coal mines on his land and continued the operation of the bloomery.

In 1615 Brooke’s son, Sir Basil Brooke, bought the patent for making steel by the cementation process and built a blast furnace at Coalbrookdale. Interestingly, Brooke was arrested in 1644 by Parliament after being involved in a plot to prevent the Scottish army taking part in the English Civil War. The following year Brooke’s estate was sequestrated by Parliament, but the works continued in use. Then in 1651 the manor was leased to Francis Wolfe, the clerk of the ironworks, by Brooke’s heirs.  Brooke had died in 1646 so presumably Parliament had returned the manor to his family. In 1658 – a new blast furnace and forges were built. In 1688 the ironworks were leased by a Shadrach Fox, who in 1696 was supplying round cannon shot and grenado shells to the Board of Ordnance during the Nine Years War. Unfortunately, in 1703 the furnace blew up but the forges remained in use.

In 1709 Abraham Darby I acquired the lease and created the Coalbrookdale Company, an iron foundry which used coke as fuel to make pots and pans. The company had a very long history and is famous for making the first iron bridge which still stands to this day. In 1945 the company started manufacturing wood-burning stoves and the Rayburn cooker. In 1969 the company was absorbed into Allied Ironfounders Ltd.

Other than in show rooms I had not seen or swept one of these Wiking stoves, so it was a must for this week’s blog. I really liked this stove, it was easy to dismantle, and has lovely clean, contemporary lines. The stove was installed around about a year ago and still has the appearance of looking brand new! It has a large piece of stove glass, so the fire can be seen when in operation, which is nice and the customer reports that it works very efficiently, providing plenty of heat into the room. The customer also stated that the stove is very good on fuel efficiency, providing plenty of heat for fuel burnt.

WIKING stoves are produced by HWAM A/S. HWAM A/S is a Danish family-owned company and one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of wood-burning stoves. Since the 1970s their core competence has been development and production of high-quality stoves in an innovative design. The development of the cleanest and the most efficient combustion has always had high priority. Today HWAM A/S produces about 25,000 stoves annually, of which 80% are exported to customers all over the world. WIKING stoves produce a number of different models including the Wiking Miro 1 to 4, the Wiking Mini 2 & 4 and the Wiking Luma 1 to 6, these are a cylindrical stove.

A trip out to Suffolk for this week’s blog! This job involved sweeping a rare retro stove, a Franklin Majestic 98-1800 Wood-Burning Stove. I had not come across one of these stoves before and it proved easy enough to sweep, but very dirty as it had not been swept for some time. This example was in an address in Lidgate, close to Bury St Edmonds. It was an unusual old, thatched timber framed property. However, what made it unusual was that the thatch had been covered by a corrugated tin roof, which had been painted black. The builder who was renovating the property told me an interesting story as to how and why such thatched buildings came to be covered with corrugated tin roofs. He told me that during the war many thatched properties had their rooves covered with corrugated tin to protect them from German 5^th columnists and spies, who might set fire to their rooves, which might aid as a guide to German bombers. This said he could not swear to the veracity of the story!

I did try and research the stove on the internet, but could find very little information about Franklin Majestic Stove, other than they were made in America. But what I did find was information about the development of Franklin stoves: The Franklin stove is a metal-lined fireplace named after Benjamin Franklin, who invented it in 1742. It had a hollow baffle near the rear (to transfer more heat from the fire to a room’s air) and relied on an “inverted siphon” to draw the fire’s hot fumes around the baffle. It was intended to produce more heat and less smoke than an ordinary open fireplace, but it achieved few sales until it was improved by David Rittenhouse. It is also known as a “circulating stove” or the “Pennsylvania fireplace”. The two distinguishing features of Franklin’s stove were a hollow baffle (a metal panel that directed the flow of the fire’s fumes) and a flue that acted as an upside-down siphon.

The stove was about 30 inches (76 cm) tall, with a box shape. The front was open, except for a decorative panel in the upper part of the box. The back of the box was to be placed a few inches away from the flue (chimney). On the bottom panel there were several holes to allow the smoke to escape; these were connected to the chimney. The panels were bolted together with iron screws through pre-cast ears. Inside there was a small, thin rectangular prism that would force the smoke into the holes. The plates were all made from iron.

Franklin’s stove sold poorly. The problem lay with the inverted siphon: the smoke had to pass through a cold flue (which was set in the floor) before the smoke could enter the chimney; consequently, the smoke cooled too much, and the stove did not have a good draft. The inverted siphon would operate properly only if the fire burned constantly, so that the temperature in the flue was high enough to produce a draft.

A later version, designed by David Rittenhouse, solved many of the problems Franklin’s original stove had, and became popular. Franklin’s fame outweighed Rittenhouse’s, though, so history remembers the Franklin Stove rather than the Rittenhouse Stove. The smaller Latrobe stove, often referred to as a Baltimore Heater, was patented in 1846 and became popular.

Here we are again, sweeping for the Bishop of Chelmsford on a Sunday in August, the only day of the week that we have time to do these jobs. On this occasion we were doing the Rectory at Great Oakley, which just outside of Harwich. The parish church at Great Oakley is dedicated to all Saints and dates back to the Norman period.

The church stands to the west of the village in the grounds of a local estate. The walls are of flint and septariarubble, with dressings of limestone; the roofs are tiled. The Nave is of the 12th century but has been lengthened at some uncertain period. Early in the 14th century the Chancel was rebuilt and probably late in the 15th century a W. tower was added. The West Tower was rebuilt in the 18th century and the church has been restored in modern times when the walls generally were refaced; the South Porch is an 18th-century addition.

The two originally had a peel of five bells, but the original tower began to become unsafe in the 18^th century, due to the weight of the bells and the disintegrating fabric which had suffered from the effects of the sea air. The tower was partially demolished and replaced with a wooden bellcote. The work was paid for by selling four of the bells, retaining one bell which was placed in the repaired tower and accounting for the tower’s unusual appearance today. There are some nice features in the church including a Norman age font and an elaborately carved doorway that had been defaced by Cromwell’s troops who were billeted in the church during the Civil War. There is a war grave in the churchyard to a sailor C. W. Offord who died during the 1^st World War.