Yorkshire Stone Fireplace

[Ian Bond]

Hi

Just a few details about the bedroom hearth in the limewash pics below.

I rebuilt it from scratch as a copy the one in the back bedroom, which was fairly intact apart from the missing shelf. Some brute hacked it off and used it as infill, but I discovered it and used it as a template.

The chimney breast had partly collapsed onto the ceiling, the jambs, lintel and shelf were missing, as was a triangle of masonry above. The back hearth is cracked - perhaps a fire got a little out of hand?

Anyway it's a very basic, vernacular cottage in West Yorks, late 1830s and judging from the neighbours' examples had stone hob grates. The opening is 28 ins wide, 31 high.

Oh dear...

At least I found a bit to copy...

After a bit of fettling..

 

[Schoolmarm]

That is a beautiful replacement. Our house is approx 1750 so the bit I can see poking out isn't quite as posh and a good deal more rustic.

 

[Nemesis]

Here's one of ours. No idea if it ever had a shelf, it was bricked up and plastered over. I saw no evidence of it.

But thankfully, it had been bricked up with everything intact inside.

Dates around 1800.

 

[Ian Bond]

Maybe it's more like this one, from Walshaw Dean, not too far from Top Withens?

Although not as damp - no roof!!!!

Due to cost restrictions I used sawn stone, rather than roughly dressed millstone grit. The original bits were dug out of the field and hand dressed to a reasonably square shape. I just had to lightly dress the masonry to fit.

The doorway has 1830 carved over it, but the building looks slightly earlier to me - hard to tell with these vernacular houses, which look pretty similar over a number of centuries. The nicely carved Ogee kneelers to the gable verges might give more of a clue. The smaller outbuilding is dated 1800.

 

[Ian Bond]

Nice pic Evelyn!

And beautifully carved hobs - certainly looks late 18th century.

May well not have had a shelf. I found the fragment in the hearth, and when I looked up into the stack, I could see a continuous 2 inch thick piece of stone atop the lintel - definitely the remains of the shelf. But I'm going to leave that one as it is, sans shelf.

a) it looks OK
b) the rooms narrower now that the bedroom has been partitioned for a new-fangled indoor bathroom
c) it's easier

 

[Schoolmarm]

Hmmm now I am jealous, the stuff in your house Ev is gorgeous.

I think our house was built on a smaller budget.

 

[Nemesis]

Have you put that on the Buildings at Risk Register?

What a waste...

Oddly enough, the other, slightly larger, front bedroom has a plainer hobgrate, but all was intact when I took the sledgehammer to the bricks.

The pic is at an odd angle and a bit washed out as I had to stand on the bed to take it with a flash.

That's what would have been the parlour - the wooden shelf was rescued from a skip and seemed to look OK so it got added. The colours are all over the place in that pic though!

The hearth has been freshly blackened since that picture was taken, too.

 

[Ian Bond]

I've not put it on the BAR I'm afraid. I expect that is destined to go the same way as Top Withens, and am guessing that the same landowner is responsible. It is next to Walshaw Dean reservoir.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=53.798262,-2.0625832&z=18&t=h&hl=en

Excellent - can I put that pic in my 'Hob Grate Library' please?

Looks like a later, early 19th century pattern, with straight hobs instead of ogee.

A useful shelf, too. But I'm also interested in the detailing of the chimney breast corners. Is there a timber bead forming the external corners, with the plaster finishing at a bevelled edge where it abuts the bead?

I had trouble deciding what to do with the skirting, as there is no return on one side (like in your pic). On your fireplace it looks as though they continued the skirting moulding around the front edge, giving a neater finish.

Always interesting to see how different people have solved similar problems.

 

[Nemesis]

I'll send it through to Catherine, it seems such a pity.

I can't recall there is a bead, but there is thick lining paper on top and it's a very long time since we papered it. But the wobbly nature of the line tells me there isn't. The stone surround had been badly hacked about to fit a nasty and latterly very battered brick thing in front of it, I repaired it as best I could with a patent mix of my own devising.

The hobgrate is not original to the room, although it did have a hobgrate until the mid 20th century. All the rubble infill was still in place, showing the shape, the stone had been painted over decades too, mostly black, dark green and brown, all very badly scorched and chipped. It was a lovely surprise to find such a good surround though.


The skirting solution is the other half's way of dealing with them. Originally there were no skirtings, we inherited several (very soggy) varieties in the same room and decided to replace the lot with something simple. The downstairs floors had to be replaced too. They were only intended as a temporary measure, one day we will get some wide boards cut from Douglas Fir and replace them. There had been a flood many years ago I gather and much material had been replaced with whatever was to hand. A right mess under old carpets in fact.

 

[Ian Bond]

The stone surround had been badly hacked about to fit a nasty and latterly very battered brick thing in front of it, I repaired it as best I could with a patent mix of my own devising.

Hmmm, intriguing...

It's not car body filler mixed with natural earth pigments by any chance is it?

!!!!Just kidding!!!!

Looks good though, perhaps you should patent it and sell us the recipe - I'm debating whether or not to bother repairing the chips in my stone, but as they are very minor I'm tempted to leave alone.

I do like that skirting, your OH has definitely done a good job on that. Mine's a bit cruder, but it suits my 'umble abode well enough.

Could do with a sensitive millionaire for that old building. Someone with a keen appreciation of vernacular architecture, and a love of the 'Wiley (no, I don't know either!), windy moors'....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfGc4wcil2g

Or it's going to go the same way as:

Via this debacle
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199798/cmhansrd/vo970723/debtext/70723-17.htm

To this...

 

[Nemesis]

Yes you try to harden your heart but...

I think the mix was something along the lines of Polyfilla mixed with sand and tinted with coffee! I have no doubt a fine lime mortar mix would do the job too.

Our house is a mix of 'umble and a bit pretentious, a yeoman farmer's abode and although I haven't totally got to the bottom of its history (got sidetracked with other stuff...) may have been connected with the manor originally. Hence the fancy bits.

 

[Ian Bond]

Decaff and Fairtrade I hope!!

Sounds good - a binder, the right sort of sand for texture and a suitable pigment.

Whatever you did, it worked - flash photography tends to highlight any defects, and none were glaringly apparent.

A handsome hob and fender by the way.

Thanks for that Evelyn.

 

[Nemesis]

Well there is still a bit missing - top right -I must finish it one day... as with the rest of the house...

No, long before Fairtrade was invented I fear!

The hob is a long story, the fender, as with much else, bought cheaply many years ago at a boot sale.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I'm quite intrigued with the off-centre fireplace. From an aesthetic & structural perspective, it would seem logical to put the opening in the centre of the chimney...

So why didn't they? Is there some other gem in the left hand side to be discovered?

 

[Nemesis]

There will be the flue from the downstairs fire.

Many upstairs rooms have offset fireopenings because of this.