Hello! Introduction...

[Alex O]

We nearly bought a house in Irlam o' Th' height 3 years ago, on one of those roads that faces the park/tennis courts, it was a small but double fronted Vic semi. Yes there's lots of nice period houses there. My sister in law lives very close by.

Fireplaces looking good... If your after off whites for your woodwork (or any other period colour) have a look at Little Greene paints, we like their oil based eggshell, far better finish than the 'diy shed' paint we used to use...made in Manchester too!

Any pics of the exterior? Back/side of the house will do if you want to remain completely anonymous

Yes we're on that very road, opposite the tennis courts! Great road, very quiet (except for the ice cream van in the Summer - argh! Why can't they have more of a variety of tunes? Teddy Bear's Picnic every hour...). Ours is one of the ones with the double height bay windows, but I think I know the one you mean that is double fronted. Looks like it needs a bit of TLC that one.

Will post some exterior pics this weekend - need some advice on the gable wall anyway.

We've gone with F&B Wimborne White so far, but will have a look at Little Greene - didn't realise they were local. I've just got into an F&B habit over the years cos there was a shop in Leominster.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Fireplaces looking good... If your after off whites for your woodwork (or any other period colour) have a look at Little Greene paints, we like their oil based eggshell, far better finish than the 'diy shed' paint we used to use...made in Manchester too!

I've used little Green, and I love their colours, and their oil eggshell is quite flat, much less satin and plastic looking than Dulux for example so it has a lovely finish. However a word of caution, they are not as forgiving to use as some other paints, I had to thin the paint quite a lot to get it to flow, and also I haven't found the oil eggshell to be very durable on external woodwork. I hate to say it but Dulux has weathered better outdoors.

 

[Feltwell]

Okay let's see if some of these pics work...

Here's one of the bedroom fireplaces the day we got the keys:

Spare%20room%20fireplace%20before.jpg

Here's the same fireplace about two hours later, after we'd discovered their secret:

Spare room fireplace after.jpg

What a find Alex!

I'm 99.9% sure that the surround is made by "Biclam" and is their pattern No.54 - have a look under the mantle shelf, it may be cast on the underside. Bennets Iron Company Limited, Ardwick Manchester. How do I know this? No, I'm not the world's biggest cast iron fireplace nerd, it's because that's the pattern of the fireplaces in my house - but - yours is unusual in that the fire hood is different.

I've been very slowly gathering these fireplaces on Ebay, to replace the missing ones in my house. Every single one that I've seen, including mine, has the same hood as shown on the link below (or has it missing!). It is a removable part, but only before you install the surround - so I'd be surprised if yours isn't the original one from when the house was built- maybe the builder didn't like the "standard" one or the foundry was using up old stock? Are they the same elsewhere in the house? They were sold as a "combination" complete fireplace, not as a separate surround & insert.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beautiful...435486?hash=item1c799d49de:g:pEsAAOSwImRYHfP0

Of course I could be wrong, that general style was quite popular in late Victorian / early Edwardian times - there are also styles called "The Repton" and "The Scotia" that come up quite regularly that are similar but not quite the same.

Let me know what it says under the mantle shelf please, I'm curious to see if I'm right!

 

[TheRoost]

We nearly bought a house in Irlam o' Th' height 3 years ago, on one of those roads that faces the park/tennis courts, it was a small but double fronted Vic semi. Yes there's lots of nice period houses there. My sister in law lives very close by.

Fireplaces looking good... If your after off whites for your woodwork (or any other period colour) have a look at Little Greene paints, we like their oil based eggshell, far better finish than the 'diy shed' paint we used to use...made in Manchester too!

Any pics of the exterior? Back/side of the house will do if you want to remain completely anonymous

Yes we're on that very road, opposite the tennis courts! Great road, very quiet (except for the ice cream van in the Summer - argh! Why can't they have more of a variety of tunes? Teddy Bear's Picnic every hour...). Ours is one of the ones with the double height bay windows, but I think I know the one you mean that is double fronted. Looks like it needs a bit of TLC that one.

Will post some exterior pics this weekend - need some advice on the gable wall anyway.

We've gone with F&B Wimborne White so far, but will have a look at Little Greene - didn't realise they were local. I've just got into an F&B habit over the years cos there was a shop in Leominster.

Small world isn't it. It's a great little road, yes that one was taken off the market before we got chance to view it, there were no interior pics, I don't think it ever went back on the market. There was also a little detached one at the other end of the road but it was very modern inside so we discounted it. I think I remember the double height bay ones, you'll probably have Accrington brick then, solid.

We used Wimbourne white for a bedroom ceiling and walls above the picture rail! Lovely soft colour that looks just like pouring cream, when you err, pour it

That reminds me I need to post some pics of my limited progress last year !

 

[Alex O]

What a find Alex!

I'm 99.9% sure that the surround is made by "Biclam" and is their pattern No.54 - have a look under the mantle shelf, it may be cast on the underside. Bennets Iron Company Limited, Ardwick Manchester. How do I know this? No, I'm not the world's biggest cast iron fireplace nerd, it's because that's the pattern of the fireplaces in my house - but - yours is unusual in that the fire hood is different.

I've been very slowly gathering these fireplaces on Ebay, to replace the missing ones in my house. Every single one that I've seen, including mine, has the same hood as shown on the link below (or has it missing!). It is a removable part, but only before you install the surround - so I'd be surprised if yours isn't the original one from when the house was built- maybe the builder didn't like the "standard" one or the foundry was using up old stock? Are they the same elsewhere in the house? They were sold as a "combination" complete fireplace, not as a separate surround & insert.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beautiful...435486?hash=item1c799d49de:g:pEsAAOSwImRYHfP0

Of course I could be wrong, that general style was quite popular in late Victorian / early Edwardian times - there are also styles called "The Repton" and "The Scotia" that come up quite regularly that are similar but not quite the same.

Let me know what it says under the mantle shelf please, I'm curious to see if I'm right!

Blimey, good knowledge! I just had a look and it is a Biclam 54. Funny about the hood - none of the others in the house look like that. We've also got a 47 in the third bedroom:



That one wasn't panelled over actually, and also is the only one not to have been grained. I suppose because it was least likely to be shown off.

The master bedroom fireplace is my favourite:



It doesn't have a stamp under the mantle shelf, but I've seen this design a lot online so I expect you know which catalogue it's from! I was beside myself when we uncovered it, because I have a real thing about pomegranates and it seemed like serendipity, as I'd been keen on Morris Bird & Pomegranate wallpaper for the hall.

 

[Alex O]

Small world isn't it. It's a great little road, yes that one was taken off the market before we got chance to view it, there were no interior pics, I don't think it ever went back on the market. There was also a little detached one at the other end of the road but it was very modern inside so we discounted it. I think I remember the double height bay ones, you'll probably have Accrington brick then, solid.

We used Wimbourne white for a bedroom ceiling and walls above the picture rail! Lovely soft colour that looks just like pouring cream, when you err, pour it

That reminds me I need to post some pics of my limited progress last year !

Ah I was actually thinking about the one at the other end of the road, but I know the one you mean now. That detached one was on sale just after ours this Summer - very modern, as you say, and I think the detached ones don't look as nice as the semis. Somehow incomplete without the second set of bays to balance them out.

Would love to see some progress pics on your place.

Btw if you know of a good builder in this neck of the woods, do please PM me!

 

[JBean]

Just a quick note of support for as much William Morris wallpaper as possible in an Edwardian house. Like yours, my other half was not sure but eventually agreed to put some in our living room and it just looks fantastic!

 

[Feltwell]

We've also got a 47 in the third bedroom:

ThirdBedroomFireplace.JPG

That one wasn't panelled over actually, and also is the only one not to have been grained. I suppose because it was least likely to be shown off.

The master bedroom fireplace is my favourite:

MasterBedroomFireplace.JPG

It doesn't have a stamp under the mantle shelf, but I've seen this design a lot online so I expect you know which catalogue it's from! I was beside myself when we uncovered it, because I have a real thing about pomegranates and it seemed like serendipity, as I'd been keen on Morris Bird & Pomegranate wallpaper for the hall.

Very nice. Biclam No.47's come up for sale all the time, looks like it was a very popular design in it's day. Odd though that the builders mixed the designs.

Here I have one surviving original fireplace - a small Biclam No.54 in the smallest bedroom - and another bedroom had the boxed in remains of another Biclam No.54, that was beyond redemption. Other than that they've been stripped out. I've been gradually acquiring them from Ebay over the last 10 years, as they come up at a reasonable price, to build from the parts enough to reinstate them all. I've assumed that the lounge and dining room fireplaces were larger versions of them and they matched throughout the house, but really I've no idea. I do know the sizes though, from the plaster on the chimney breasts.

The hardest bit to get is the firebars, as they tend to get taken off when people box them in, as you've seen. I've 2 sets of original bars (they are as per the Ebay link to the very nice but very expensive restored fireplace). For the non-working fireplaces I think I'll have to make some copies in wood and spray them black!

 

[Alex O]

Yes for some reason the firebars were tucked into the hardboard fake fireplace in the master bedroom - don't know why they were kept in there but not in the other room. Mind, we have been impressed by how carefully the fireplaces and the stairs were boxed in. It was obviously done by a skilled joiner, and it almost gives the impression that whoever did it had a thought that it might all be uncovered again one day and didn't really do any damage to any of it.

 

[Alex O]

Just a quick note of support for as much William Morris wallpaper as possible in an Edwardian house. Like yours, my other half was not sure but eventually agreed to put some in our living room and it just looks fantastic!

wm Morris.jpg

Gorgeous! It would be nice to have more here, but on the other hand we do have a lot of pictures and paintings to hang (and will collect more!), so it's not as though we'll have vast blank walls anywhere - the muted white will be a good backdrop to our eclectic art collection.

 

[Feltwell]

Yes for some reason the firebars were tucked into the hardboard fake fireplace in the master bedroom - don't know why they were kept in there but not in the other room. Mind, we have been impressed by how carefully the fireplaces and the stairs were boxed in. It was obviously done by a skilled joiner, and it almost gives the impression that whoever did it had a thought that it might all be uncovered again one day and didn't really do any damage to any of it.

That makes a very nice change!

Here they threw the firebars away and snapped the mantle shelf off prior to boxing it in :evil: The only saving grace was I found the mantle shelf in the garage - but the garage, now replaced, was so damp & horrible that it was very rusty.

 

[TheRoost]

Fireplaces looking good... If your after off whites for your woodwork (or any other period colour) have a look at Little Greene paints, we like their oil based eggshell, far better finish than the 'diy shed' paint we used to use...made in Manchester too!

I've used little Green, and I love their colours, and their oil eggshell is quite flat, much less satin and plastic looking than Dulux for example so it has a lovely finish. However a word of caution, they are not as forgiving to use as some other paints, I had to thin the paint quite a lot to get it to flow, and also I haven't found the oil eggshell to be very durable on external woodwork. I hate to say it but Dulux has weathered better outdoors.

Wonder if you had a bad tin or their mixes vary a bit, for us the oil undercoat was a joy to use, then the top coat was a little bit thinner, which dripped a bit at first until I got the hang of using it. Then again I like painting in a cold room and it was winter, maybe that made the difference.

I've only used it indoors so far, I remember you mentioning in another thread that you'd had problems with it outdoors, I've been meaning to trial it by painting some test areas on our west facing windows and some new bits of wood left outside. Tis a shame because they do some great colours, we've done the insides of the windows in their 'lead white' .