Well, we spent a busy week at work, slowly following one steam engine after another on their way to the Saffron Walden Crank up, wondering whether we were ever going to arrive at the next job and how late we were going to be. But to be honest it didn’t trouble us too much; it was just fantastic to see all those steam beasts back on the road again.

We had a fantastic day at the Crank Up on the Sunday, which was our one day off last week, and we met many of our customers there. Notably we met David Gowlett the blacksmith from Ugley, who was there with his steam tractor Ada. David told us that he had been left Ada in his grandfathers will when he was just 7 years of age. Ada had spent all her working life doing agricultural tasks on the Stetchworth Estate near Newmarket and had worked there prior to the First World War. She eventually ended up in a scrap yard in Saffron Walden where she was rescued for preservation.

As you can see from the photographs there were two Sentinel Steam Lorries at the show. I took these photos to send to my Uncle Ern up in Liverpool, as he had been evacuated to Shrewsbury to live with three maiden aunts during the Second World War and he can remember clearly the steam lorries trundling out of the Sentinel Works.

As a day out I can highly recommend the Crank Up, along with all the steam vehicles, there were classic cars, lorries and tractors as well as steam organs, steam fairground rides, a beer tent and lots of food outlets. There was one doing particularly good fresh doughnuts. It was only a shame that the weather was so poor, wet and the wind was really whistling across the old Debden Airfield where the show was held.

I still sweep a number of wood-fired and solid fuel range cookers across the area, but to be honest they are getting few and far between and the vast majority of them are either Aga’s or Rayburn’s. I was therefore most surprised to find this example of an Esse Lightheart Wood-Fired Range Cooker in the kitchen of a semi-detached house in Saffron Walden. Pleasantly surprised I should say. Across the whole of the area I cover I only sweep one other example of an Esse Wood-Fired Range and that is an old Esse 1000 model in an address in Debden Green. I quite like this new more modern approach to the range cooker that Esse have taken with the Lightheart. My favorite feature is the glass window to the fire-box so that you can see the range in operation when it is lit. Beautiful.

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’. after 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/

Here is something rather unusual, a Stovax Huntingdon 25 Multi-Fuel Stove but in a white enamel finish. I have swept numerous examples of the Stovax Huntingdon range of stoves over the years, but I had not come across one with an enamel finish. What I have seen a lot of manufactured by the stovax company and which comes in a number of different coloured enamel finishes, is the Stovax Brunel range, but I have not seen any other model of stovax stove in an enamel finish before. The lady customer was rather proud of her enamel stove and the fact that it is rather rare and unusual, although personally I’m not sure that a white finish is the best finish for a stove, as it will show any dirt or soot quite quickly. The customer was also pleased that the stove operates more than adequately to heat what was a rather large 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/about-us/

Here is a real rarity, a Masport Auckland Wood-Burning Stove, I had never come across one of these before finding this example at an address in Radwinter. Until I swept this stove I was not even aware of a stove company called Masport. Needless to say, I was straight on to Google when I got home to see what I could find out about Masport and the Auckland Stove. I was keen to do this as not only had I not been aware of this stove manufacture and model I had been told by the customer that they had been very impressed with the stoves performance but had not been able to tell me much about it as they had inherited it when they had moved into the address. I always like a bit of a rarity for the weekly blog!

By searching the web I was able to discover that Masport Heating are an Australian stove manufacturer who have been producing stoves and other heating components for over 40 years. They have manufacturing sites in both Australia and New Zealand, hence the Auckland stove model. Their sales material tells us that: “Masport Heating products are designed specifically for Australian homes. We are passionate about providing the most inspirational design and advanced technology to give you the best fire. We strive to care for Australia and its environment, and we are proud to be at the forefront of a new generation of clean burning, ultra-efficient wood fires”.

Masport Heating manufacture a wide range of models, but do not appear to make the Auckland stove any longer. Their models include a cylindrical stove called the Adena, a cassette stove called the Inveral, a type of Jetmaster open fire configuration called the Ligna and two types of pot belly stoves called the Klondike and the Pitsburgh Mk II. They also produce an extensive range of freestanding stoves including the Rosewood, Redwood, Redcliff, Rubyvale, Rockwood, Romsey, Riverstone, Ravenhall, Clunes, Curlewis, Creswick, and the Westcott 1000, 2000 and 3000.

https://www.masportheating.com.au/en-au/all-products

You could have knocked me over with a feather last week, when I turned up at an address in Great Abington to sweep the chimney and found a large Parrot sitting on the gatepost. I simply just couldn’t believe it, at first thinking it was some form of cuddly toy, but as I pulled up and wound down my wind it turned its head to look at me and said ‘hello’. So, it was a friendly, talking parrot in the middle of Great Abington, who would have thought it. Still slightly incredulous, I asked the customer about it, and he told me that his name was Bruno and that he lived close by in a nature reserve and that they let him out every morning for his little bit of daily exercise. Apparently, he never goes very far from the Nature center and returns for his food. The customer said that he is not a parrot as such, but is a Scarlet Macaw and originally comes from Central South America/Amazonia.

I have not previously written about actually doing the sweeping work before in my blog, I don’t know why, but thinking about it now, it seems to be a major omission on my part. Afterall chimney sweeping is what we do! So here is a little insight into the daily round!

The scene in the photo is of a job in Littlebury, where I’m manually sweeping a large opening brick lined chimney – Which is still quite a common occurrence in the sweeping sphere. To those noy initiated to the arts of chimney sweeping there are various different types of sweeping, and not all alleged chimney sweeps are familiar with the different kinds of chimney sweeping techniques and differing types of equipment. For example, power or rotary sweeping relies on the use of a drill to turn rod that click or button lock together and which turn very quickly – A variety of different sweeping heads can be used with power rods, including various nylon stranded heads, various metal cable/strands, brushes or even chains for cleaning tarry terracotta liners. Power sweeping is very effective for cleaning stubborn tar deposits, chimneys with tight turns, or stripping out bird’s nests. However, it should not be used on chimneys made of old soft red brick, old clay pargeted chimneys or brick chimneys that are in a poor state of repair, as it is far too vigorous a method of sweeping and would cause damage to the chimney. This said many sweeps that are out there in your area are only equipped and trained to use the power sweeping technique.

Another methos of sweeping involves the use of a German invented piece of equipment called a Viper. Vipers come in various sizes and like with power sweeping the equipment can be fitted with various different sizes and types of brushes. The viper is a long coil fitted tightly within a round cage, and secured with a brake, that a brush can be attached to the end of and is in essence, rods on a reel. It is the torque within the real that drives the brush up a chimney when the brake is released. The brush can be scrubbed up and down the chimney to effect cleaning. The viper is ideal for sweeping lined appliances, such as stoves and ranges. It does have a significant draw back in that it will only work on a chimney that is relatively straight throughout. This is because there is no way of turning the brush with a viper, so there is no way of getting it to negotiate chimney turns.

Having said all this, what is taking place in the photograph is an example of what we term manual sweeping, where rods and a brush are used to clean the chimney, just as in the days of Victorian chimney sweeps. The only difference today are that the rods are made of carbon fiber and not cane of wood. They do however screw together in the same old way. A particular technique has to be learnt by the sweep to perform manual sweeping, not only to ensure that the chimney is swept effectively, but also to make sure the rods and brush do not undo in the chimney. This involves constantly turning the rods clockwise whilst sweeping the chimney and by putting torque into the rods to prevent them undoing. Torque is achieved by bending each successive rods as they are added, up to the sweeps right shoulder and then twisting it clockwise from the shoulder as it is pushed up the chimney. When the top of the chimney is reached the whole process is reversed on the way down.

Here in the photograph, I’m using a large inglenook brush to sweep what is quite a large open chimney. For each sweep I lay out the equipment required in the same position on the dust sheets. I have the industrial hoover always to my left and my toolbox and rods or viper to my right. If using rods I always rest them on the tool box for ease of access, although I now use an open toolbox, not the one seen in the photo. And that is how I manually sweep an open fire chimney.

I recently swept this Di Lusso R4 Euro Wood-Burning Stove at an address in Sewards End, near Saffron Walden,  and it is the first time had come across this brand of stoves and I was intrigued to find out more about them. I thought it looked like a very neat, tidy contemporary stove and found that it was relatively easy to disassemble for sweeping, and to put back together again. The customer assured me that the stoves performance was very good and that it was used almost every day of the burning season.

Looking at the stove’s contemporary appearance, its compact styling and its Italian sounding company name, I thought that it would be made by a continental stove manufacturer, in particular an Italian stove company. However, a web search showed me just how wrong I could be, when I discovered that the Di Lusso stove range is manufactured and sold by the Hunter Stoves Group here in the UK. In view of this fact and the stove’s handsome appearance and excellent performance, I’m sure I will be seeing a lot more of them in the future. Particularly as there are a number of different models in the Di Lusso range, the R4, R5 and the R6. These all come as freestanding models and as inset variants, and the R6 comes as the Cube Arco and the Cube Quatro.

Hunter stoves Head Office is in Exeter, like many other stove manufacturers who are also based in the West Country.

Hunter stoves

8 Emperor Way

Exeter Business Park

Exeter EX1 3QS

Contact Us

 Here we were busy working at an address in Finchingfield doing the chimneys to a couple of large stoves, when we had a cheeky little visitor in the side compartment of the van. This was Poppy the customers little black Cocker Spaniel bitch, presumably on the hunt for some food, Cockers are known to be food obsessed life forms! “Yes, I’m checking out this van, I’m giving it a really good sniffing, but there is no food here”! Poppy is still quite young, not much over a year old, so she is still a pup really and the world is still such an exciting place, so who wouldn’t want to check out something new when it suddenly turns up on your driveway! The customer also have an old Chocolate Brown Labrador called Kato, who was being very well behaved and wasn’t going anywhere near the van and actually looked a bit sheepish, obviously concerned about what naughtiness his younger colleague was getting up to. They both did really make us laugh and brightened the working day.

The good news was that we didn’t drive off with the customers dog inside the van, and that both the customers stoves and chimneys were absolutely fine. Happy days!

 I recently swept this very unusual and attractive tall Petite Godin Stove at an address in Therfield near Royston. These antique stoves are quite a rare find these days, although I have come across one or two of these tall Petite Godin Stoves. I think these antique stoves are rather beautiful and in the right setting they can really add to the ambiance of a room and add value to a property. This stove was an admirable finishing touch to a snug room in an old, thatched cottage. I’m sure its presence means that the snug can be enjoyed by the family all year round! Looking on the internet they really hold their value and are now quite sought after, with a number of websites dealing with their acquisition and sale.

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.

At the end of this week we have been on our end of January annual chimney sweeping visit to south Wales. This involves sweeping the chimneys of Claire’s dad’s friends in the Wenvoe farming community and a couple of addresses in Mumbles Swansea, for free! This year we did eight chimneys all of which were lined stoves, bar one standard open fire, which makes things quite easy. As usual, much tea was drunk, and cake and biscuits consumed along the way! We were fit to burst from all the kindness once we were done!

The sweeping included two Clearview Vision 500’s, a Villager Flatmate, a Villager Chelsea, A Hunter Hawk and a Double-sided Woodwarm Fireview. Truly a busman’s holiday in another country.