CHIMNEY POT DESIGNS
A chimney is the structure that carries smoke from the fire to the flue and away into the open air. The chimney stack is the visible part of the chimney above the roof, and the chimney pot sits on top of this. The pot has a practical function in improving fireplace draw and limiting drafts. There are thousands of different designs of chimney pots, which are sometimes called ‘cans’ in Scotland and ‘tuns’ in south-west England. Chimneys were first found in castles, then in manor houses, and they were often seen as a status symbol. As dwellings became subdivided into rooms, more smaller fireplaces were needed to heat them, and chimneys became more complex, with separate flues serving different fireplaces. Chimney pots came into wider use in the 17th and early 18th centuries, and their design varied from region to region. In 17th century farmhouses in Cumbria, chimney pots often featured a peaked stone cover, made with local slate, to stop the rain from dripping down the chimney, while in Norfolk, a county where brick building was at a peak in the 1650s, a farmhouse might incorporate a single shaft with shaped ‘crow step’ gable and an elegant cap. In a grand manor house in Dorset during the same period, chimneys reflected the fashion for classicism in architecture, with arches, keystones and pediments incorporated into the design. Baroque style, in wealthy homes, saw elaborate Tuscan columns and multiple chimney stacks, denoting fires in many different rooms; a luxury only afforded to the rich. More workaday, but still sizeable, dwellings could include a composite chimney stack, situated in the centre of the roof, with no embellishments. Workers’ cottages and crofts, such as those in the Hebrides, were not subject to the vagaries of fashion, but built for practicality, the whitewashed crofts hugging the landscape, with plain low-built chimneys to filter smoke away from peat-burning fires. The Victorian era was the golden age of chimney pots, and most seen today date from this time or later. In streets of identical Victorian terraces, many differently shaped chimney pots can be observed, probably because they were an affordable way to personalise a home.