The Art of Fire
Let's leave the actual fire out of it for a moment while I explain the system. This was some fifty years ago, or more, and things were a little more rudimentary in the home back then and electrical sockets were more like one Bakelite 15 amp socket and whatever your kitchen appliances needs had to be met from a birds nest of cables and adapters that came from them or out of the light switch which had a similar birds nest. This was no problem as the electrical needs were simple and health and safety had yet to be invented. But the reliance on wood or coal fires for heat and paraffin oil for the lighting was extensive. In the kitchen was the forerunner of the Rayburn, the range which was the focus of the kitchen/parlour but the manufacturer escapes me. This provided the only heat in the house (apart from the hearth in the front room which was only lit on very special occasions), and of course for cooking. The fire was always lit every morning and the stove was always blacked before it was lit. It was always wood, small pieces of dry pine to get it going and always laid end on in the grate to get the air drawing through the wood. She was least fussy about the logs that went on that fire except they must be always from last season and of the right size. Occasionally, if there was any about, she might put a little coal on for extra heat.
But in the shed out the back was where it all happened. There had the copper to one side, for the washing, always on a Wednesday and required ash logs for the flame and the heat they generated. On a Friday there was always a steak and kidney pudding steaming gently as Gramp liked it, and the butcher had his meat delivery on a Friday ready for the weekend. This always required elm logs for the slow and gentle burn needed for steaming the pudding. The one exception to all this routine was the Christmas pudding and a nice joint of ham, once a year, and that required dry oak logs, because it was tradition. I often remember calling in on my way home and seeing the steam cloud billowing over the top of the door when the copper was in full flow and Nan appearing through the fog with her face glistening with sweat like she was just emerging from a sauna.
In the other corner was the wood oven which was always lit on a Thursday for the bread, and several other days too if supplies got low. This always needed birch, bundled up in faggots about three feet long as they burned quick and with extraordinary amounts of heat, to get the heat into the oven quickly and turn to ash just as quickly so the business of the day could be got on with.
All these woods which had to be seasoned properly, just the right length and loaded into the fire end on, always end on, to get the draught running though the fire properly and up the chimney. There is a point to my rambling reminiscing, Modern stoves are not fussy about the wood you use to feed them with. In fact you would be hard pushed to find any elm logs for the copper these days since Dutch Elm swept through the land and changed the landscape for ever. With the modern woodburner in the lounge turning out extraordinary amounts of heat it could never be a cold room as once it always would have been. The kitchen range is now the reliable and efficient Rayburn, giving all the heat you could ever need to cook and heat your water and radiators around the rest of the house with. All with such efficiency and tolerance of its user who would never understand now the way Nan fussed around for the right type of wood and the right size. Heating your home is no longer the skill or the chore it was back then and the home is always a warm and welcoming place, whatever the weather outside.
The Woodman
Come and talk to us and lets see how we can change the way you look at your home for next winter. ee you soon!
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