Mystery fireplaces

[overlander matt]

Our house has a number of fireplaces that have been boarded up. I think the fires were removed in the 1980s but I have come across a few rusty items in an outbuilding which might be salvageable...

I would be interested to know where they would likely have been fitted in the house originally - a reception room or bedroom and the era. The house is Georgian with a Victorian extension. In the Victorian extension is a badly painted fireplace but that is the only one of 11 fireplaces to have anything fitted.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions...

Matt

 

[Gothichome]

Matt, my thoughts:
First in the best parlour
Second in the dinning room
Last in one of the bedrooms
One and two could be switched.

 

[Abi Cott]

Number 3 matches the one on my landing quite well, which would originally have heated the entire top floor as one space.

I'm not sure of its date, the house appears to have undergone a significant renovation in the Victorian period. Prior to this it would have been decidedly lower class. The renovations definitely aimed to move the house above it's natural status. So this could be a late Georgian bedroom fireplace for a vernacular property, or a mid Victorian one for a house with illusions of grandeur.

 

[Kearn]

. I think the fires were removed in the 1980s but I have come across a few rusty items in an outbuilding which might be salvageable...

from the pics, unless of course the finish is the only thing holding them together, I'd say these are in relatively great shape and no question, very salvageable. They've stood up well to near 40years, so lucky they were somewhere relatively dry...

 

[overlander matt]

Thanks for your thoughts on the fireplaces. It's good to know they are salvageable - they were hidden in the barn! There is a fair amount of pitting on the more decorative one and obviously there are missing pieces and tiles. I guess this is a job for a specialist fireplace restorer?

One detail I didn't mention previously was the house listing specifically mentions an Adams Style fireplace in the dining room or drawing room. I am not fully familiar with what this should look like but given the presence of two gas fires in these rooms, I am sure that it was removed. Do you think any of these fires might be described as Adams style?

As luck would have it, I found another fire today - boarded up in a room that would presumably have been staff quarters. It resembles the first fireplace albeit less decorative - does this suggest it might have been in one of the two main bedrooms? I wasn't quite sure what the definition of parlour is...

Thanks again.

Matt

 

[plasticpigeon]

I believe the top fireplace is a Georgian hob grate, I think the picture shows it upside down. The middle looks like a late Victorian tiled insert, and the bottom picture a mid Victorian arched insert. An Adam style fireplace is a neoclassical style, made popular by Robert Adam. Swags, tails, urns, and other classical stuff. I'm no expert, but the picture is of the style

Your last picture looks like another georgian hob grate. Where are the Georgian experts. Gareth???

 

[plasticpigeon]

The dead bird is impressive!!!

 

[Gothichome]

Matt, a parlour is a sitting room. Usually the fanciest of things get put in there. It’s there to entertain guests and show off. Gothichome has two parlours, a front parlour and back parlour. The front parlour would be the best parlour. It traditionally only got used for impressing. The back parlour would have been used more for day to day family use.

 

[Gothichome]

And here is a picture of a Victorian tiled insert.

I bet that bird gave the room a unique miasma for a year or so.

 

[overlander matt]

Thank you GothicHome and PlasticPigeon for the fireplace education! The picture is becoming a little clearer...

The original house was Georgian with 3 rooms each on 3 levels. On the ground floor, the two reception rooms now have gas fires fitted but there is a painted surround that looks a little older... I don't imagine this is the Adams-style fireplace. I did notice some old broken pieces of marble in the outbuilding so worth investigating. I have not opened up the wall where the kitchen fire would have been. On the first floor, the two bedrooms had no fireplaces fitted - perhaps the hob grate would have been in one of these? The third bedroom is in the staff wing of the house and is a less decorative hob grate. The second floor has three more staff bedrooms but each fireplace has been removed. Presumably these would have been smaller, simpler fireplaces.

There was also an extension built in Victorian times with two rooms. The ground floor room now has a gas fire and the first floor has the painted tiled fireplace shown below. the ground floor might have had the tiled fireplace I found in the barn. So that just leaves the arched insert...

As for the bird, I thought it might be a crow...

 

[Abi Cott]

Fireplace 4 is a working fireplace, capable of boiling a kettle and heating an iron on the flat plates to either side. I think you found it in situ in the staff quarters

 

[plasticpigeon]

The surround that you have put up a picture of, I think could be called Adam style. Not sure how old it is, it somehow doesn't look very old, but it might be!

 

[1610ness]

Is that an old smoking pipe on the other side to the dead bird?

 

[Westholme]

The hood on the Fireplace 2 insert might be hinged at the top.
The raised hearth for Fireplace 6 looks suspiciously non-original.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Fireplace 6 is definitely your "Adam style" one. It's been messed about with both at hearth level and with the varnished wood insert.
It looks Edwardian rather than genuinely Georgian but there are some odd features, like the little gothick niches in the centre panel, that do make me wonder whether it is earlier than c1900.

 

[overlander matt]

The listing for the house does mention the fireplaces...

'Interior has original Adam style fireplace to east room and mid C19 marble fireplace to west room, with
segment headed niche to east side'.

It sounds like the Adam style fireplace still exists which is good news albeit with changes to the hearth and other wooden insert. I'll have to think what we can do here given this is the best parlour in the house. I will also have to see what remains of the C19 marble fireplace - I don't have a photo right now but the hearth is marble - and I have seen some marble in an out building...

Thank you for your ideas.

Matt

 

[overlander matt]

I've made some progress with the fireplaces. A company in Leicester (Britain's Heritage) has done a great job of restoring the hob grates and arch. I have another one (the white painted one) ready later this week.

My first quandary is knowing which rooms to put the fireplaces in... I am considering putting the large hob grate in the main Georgian bedroom, the small hob grate in the second Georgian bedroom and the arch in the new main bathroom (which was formerly a bedroom). Finding a suitable surround for each of these is the next challenge.

In the original post, I made reference to an Adam style surround. This is in need of specialist renovation I suspect being of pitched pine and composite/gesso. Just wondered if anyone new a place...

Thanks in advance.

Matt