HOMES EXTRA
T
The Ember
he fireplace was around long before the first historians developed language and methods of recording events. Its purpose was three-fold, heating, cooking, and providing a social focal point. The first proper homes had a central fire, with gaps in the roof for the smoke to escape. Over several centuries homes evolved from timber framed single rooms into multi-roomed brick structures. The fireplace also evolved. With more rooms to heat, more fires were required. The fireplace migrated from the centre of the room to the periphery. This was the era of the inglenook. The inglenook, or chimney corner, was the large space around the hearth (which contained the fire) that was big enough for cooking and also for people to be seated to socialise. Andirons or leg irons held the fuel, faggots and logs, just above the ground. Inglenooks remain a popular focal point in old inns and a
STRIKES BACK
With summer coming to an end, fireplaces are being prepped in readiness for the ceremonial first lighting of the season – and the unavoidable acceptance that autumn is here. Robert Veitch stokes the embers of their social history
roaring log fire on a cold day in a welcoming pub remains one of life’s little joys. In residential homes, more rooms equated to more fireplaces, which gradually reduced in size. During the Victorian era, the advent of large-scale house building programmes led to the standardisation of some household elements. The Victorians standardised both the chimney and the fireplace and mass-produced both, along with grates, fireguards, firebacks, fenders, pokers, tongs and bellows. Fireplaces became more efficient as they became smaller. The advent of coal as a fuel created further progress. Coal is denser and burns hotter than wood, which meant a small coal-fuelled fireplace could generate more heat than a large wood-fuelled fireplace.
The coal man, like the milkman, has largely disappeared September 2021 | SUSSEX LIVING 81
