Please help me understand my kitchen

[JoceAndChris]

From your pictures it's a bit difficult to understand the relationship between the alcoves and any adjacent heat sources, but kitchens used to have various cavities/niches/alcoves. The best-known was of course the bread oven - usually close to the fire, from where hot embers could be scooped to heat up the oven. But there were also little storage cupboards in warm areas, for keeping things like salt, herbs and spices dry.

Good decision on the floors, by the way. Sorry if I got a bit bossy!

Thanks Penners; you know I love it when you get all commanding. :wink: And I never get upset with people being passionate about defending old stuff.

I need a wide-angle lens, this is the best I can manage to show you the relationship between all my holes.

So maybe the alcove with the books was a fire (?), with the little stone door lifting away to remove the ash? And this alcove where the electric hob now is was a bread oven? But then where were the clothes washed? (There is a scullery next door with an old butler's sink but there's no heat source.)

 

[yamin]

I'll join the others, in the leave the floor as it is camp. I think the different floors look charming, if that doesn't sound too twee, and your flagstones are just gorgeous! Why do ours not look like that??? I think the mismatch gives so much character. I know its tempting to see if its flags under the quarry tiles, and I'd be tempted to peep too, but bear in mind that if they are there, they could be in very poor condition and be just as much a mismatch as you have now.

By the way, you have at least 2 of my cookery books! Couldn't see the rest but assuming they are all fine french cordon bleu with a bit of Nigella thrown in??

 

[JoceAndChris]

You are right. Everyone is right. I'm just going to have to slap my itching fingers down every time they start reaching for the chisel to find out what's underneath!

Nigella, Jamie, bloody Gordon Ramsey, all Delia, and a strange Aga woman called Amy Willcock who suggests things like lamb in hay- all presents from people who think that living in an old house is about cooking and gardening. :?

 

[Carol]

Can I add my vote to the 'Leave the lovely floor' party and suggest if it was originally a hunting lodge the 'dairy' might have been a game store and the chimney hearth combo some sort of smokery thing?
What did they hunt for in your neck of the woods?

 

[yamin]

Nigella, Jamie, bloody Gordon Ramsey, all Delia, and a strange Aga woman called Amy Willcock who suggests things like lamb in hay- all presents from people who think that living in an old house is about cooking and gardening. :?

Well, it is, isn't it? Do you actually have an aga? I think you do, you shameless squanderer! :lol: :shock:

What did they hunt for in your neck of the woods?

Serving wenches, probably!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I really love your house, it's full of wonderful nooks and crannies. They are all part of the kitchen;s history, storage, baking roasting etc,

I think that you do have clay tiles, and frustrating though it is, definitely leave them there, If you really want some form of 'uniformity' perhaps you could consider putting Norfolk rush matting, or a seagrass in the middle of the room, leaving a goodly margin of tiles around the edge.

In any event your finds are a great deal more exciting than my pink and grey marley tiles, under which are the old clay tiles. I can see them peeking out under the edge of the DPC.

 

[robgil]

is it just me or has anyone else noticed Jamie Oliver seems to be seriously drenching his food in olive oil lately?
edit = sorry to be off topic.

 

[yamin]

Oh yes! But they all do it! Make lovely dishes then drench them in greasy oil - ugh!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks for all these incredibly kind comments, woken up today and seen my floor in a new light!

Yes, Carol, I think it must have had a gamey purpose too. There are a lot of very old iron hooks all over (especially in the scullery), and on the floor underneath these hooks, are red stains - BLOOD? :?

I think they hunted and ate just about everything that moved in the 18th C didn't they? Loads and loads of rabbits and pheasants here anyway. Mmmm, roasted squirrel with silverfish topping drenched in olive oil - I'll have to email Jamie!

Jocelyn- I love your suggestion of Norfolk rush matting! That would look great, and protect the floor too. Have you lived with it? Does it show the dirt easily? I could roll it back for major cook ups, but muddy cats (I have a visiting ghost cat, not sure what to do with him! ) are in and out all the time with presents.

What are you going to do about your pink and grey marley tiles? Sorry, I'm not really sure what a marley tile is either, but it sounds nice!

 

[yamin]

Image

- SOrry, meant to be a pic of one of those little doors and alcoves you have


Someone may have mentioned this, but have you considered that this may be a door to provide access to the chimney above a fire? Or is it not in the right position? I ask because we found one just like this when we were accessing the flue to foit our log burner last year. Apparently quite common - someone else can explain exactly what use for, but it provided access to perhaps awkward 'turns' in your flu that might need accessing......I have a pic of ours somewhere....

 

[robgil]

Image

- SOrry, meant to be a pic of one of those little doors and alcoves you have


Someone may have mentioned this, but have you considered that this may be a door to provide access to the chimney above a fire? Or is it not in the right position? I ask because we found one just like this when we were accessing the flue to foit our log burner last year. Apparently quite common - someone else can explain exactly what use for, but it provided access to perhaps awkward 'turns' in your flu that might need accessing......I have a pic of ours somewhere....

they were used for drying/smoking meat apparently.

 

[yamin]

Oh really? Wouldn't have thought big enough - not sure you could smoke much more than a dolly-bless poussin in ours! Does make sense though.......

 

[Feltwell]

What are you going to do about your pink and grey marley tiles? Sorry, I'm not really sure what a marley tile is either, but it sounds nice!

I wouldn't be too jealous of Marley tiles. If I'm right what Jocelyn has got is some "lovely" vinyl floor tiles, pink and grey I guess means circa 1980, stuck on top of her original floor tiles. They will probably be stuck with a horrible sticky black bitumen layer which is the devil's own job to get off if you wanted to reveal what's underneath, if the tiles are actually still there and are any good.

I can just about see evidence of some original quarry tiles in my downstairs loo, in a corner under a soil pipe, but it looks as if the rest of the floor has had them ripped up, self-levelling compound put down and then some quite nasty brown ceramic tiles laid.

So count yourself lucky with your pamments / quarry tiles! Actually having seen everyone else's comments I'm inclined to agree they are pamments, it's difficult to tell with all the discolouration but they look paler than quarry tiles. Most quarry tiles are dark red / brown, but my quarry tiles are quite a pale orange in places though, so you never know.

http://www.pamments.co.uk/gallery3.htm

 

[Flyfisher]

We bought a house in 1992 that had an immaculate grey tile and pink suite bathroom.
Must have been the height of interior design fashion at some point I suppose.

 

[yamin]

And do you think that in 100 years the PPUK forum, in whatever form, will be villifying the removal of those wonderful 'period' avacado bathrooms??? :roll:

 

[JoceAndChris]

YES! :lol: Grey and pink aren't so bad. I'm falling in love with my grey and pink and gold 1980s bathroom; I can't believe Chris wants to hack it up- more on that another time maybe.

I wouldn't be too jealous of Marley tiles. If I'm right what Jocelyn has got is some "lovely" vinyl floor tiles, pink and grey I guess means circa 1980, stuck on top of her original floor tiles. They will probably be stuck with a horrible sticky black bitumen layer which is the devil's own job to get off if you wanted to reveal what's underneath, if the tiles are actually still there and are any good.

Oh. Well,if anyone can make them look any good it's Jocelyn Plummer- I've seen her interiors, and they're beautiful (hope you don't mind me saying that Joss but I think you need someone to blow your trumpet for you ).

And thanks for the link Feltwell, those pamments are the same as what's down there in my kitchen grotto. Now when people sniff at my scabby floor I'll be able to say "Ah but they're Victorian Norfolk pamments don't you know, highly prized." That'll shut them up. Thanks PPukers!

 

[Penners]

leave the floor as it is camp.

I can think of many reasons to leave the floor, but I hadn't considered that it might be camp.

 

[Feltwell]

Oh. Well,if anyone can make them look any good it's Jocelyn Plummer- I've seen her interiors, and they're beautiful (hope you don't mind me saying that Joss but I think you need someone to blow your trumpet for you ).

Oh no, it wasn't a criticism of Jocelyn Plummer - far from it - her post I read as being that she was bemoaning the fact that she had original tiles that someone had covered up with Marleys. If I've read that completely wrong and the Marleys were her choice then I look a bit of an eejit really, don't I??

My last house had a tiny bathroom with a dark grey suite, dark orange walls and a T&G pine ceiling when we moved in - with a single spotlight in the middle that only shone in 1 corner. Truly hideous.

Avacado bath suites - it's funny how something that was once all the rage can fall so far from grace. Let's hope UPVC windows suffer the same fate, although I doubt they will.

 

[Penners]

Joce - on the subject of the alcove that houses your hob, I have my doubts about it being a bread oven (not that I'm any kind of authority). It seems a bit too far away from the main fireplace - if, indeed, that's where you think it is. However, given that it has that little iron door below it, I wonder whether it might once have housed a wash copper.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Feltwell - keep calm, you don't look like an eejit. I knew what you meant, and sure you're right Joss would prefer the quarry tiles to be on show. I simply meant that I know she'll make the best of what she's got.

Penners - my mum also thinks it was for washing. But as I've mentioned before, she has a real thing about washing (put anything down for 5 minutes- it's washed. )So I thought that might just be her fantasy.

If it was for washing, it must have been so steamy down there! And even damper!

Has anyone ever tried smoking or curing meat?