All through the ages, it appears, home is where the hearth is
Jeremy Knight, curator at Horsham Museum & Art Gallery, explores the history of fireplaces and the role they play in homemaking, including some of the features that have now become antiques
With the onset of the cold snap, we are all appreciating the warmth of central heating. This is probably the greatest change in the development of homes, as it means people can now live in dispersed rooms, rather than huddled in together. Imagine social distancing if there was only one source of heat for your whole household!
Nowadays, unless people have a wood burning stove or coal fire, they quickly forget the importance of the hearth. How many people remove old chimneybreasts to make rooms larger? How many new homes have chimneys, and are they ornamental rather than functional? This week we look at that key feature of a home, the hearth, which has historically been central to homemaking.
The archaeological record is full of evidence for the hearth, from patches of burnt soil to carbonised wood fragments, or a ring of fire-cracked stones in the centre of a floor that suggests an opening above the fire to let the smoke out.
At Horsham Museum, some of the roof timbers show evidence of burning caused by an open fire, not by an accident. Some fires had hoods, just as today’s kitchens often have a cooker hood to catch steam and smells, but then its purpose was to capture the smoke. As well as a central fire, the occupants of hall houses and hovels used animal proximity to keep warm. It was the creation of separate spaces, the separation of them and us, that led to significant changes in the home. As individual wealth increased along with status, spaces became rooms, and rooms required heating.
Though the earliest known domestic chimney in Britain dates to the 12th century, they did not really become part of the average home for another 300 years or more. Smoke was captured in a chimney, creating a draught, which in turn improved the efficiency of the fire.
However, the enclosure of a flame and increasing its effectiveness led to obvious problems. Chimneys were made of timber, wattle and daub. The hearth also separated from the fire used for cooking food. Cooking fires were often located in the new service wing of houses incorporating the kitchen. At Horsham Museum’s Causeway House, the medieval kitchen was built on the side so that it could be pulled away with grappling irons if it caught fire.
With the increase of fireplaces in the home, the fireback, that large lump of cast iron made in the Weald that adorned the backs of the chimney to stop burning of the wood and to reflect heat, rose to prominence. Although bricks were made at this time, they were not popular in the home. Their popularity grew following the Great Fire of London, but even when brick chimneys were built in expensive homes, firebacks remained. Such is their iconic status, they have become a much sought-after antiques.
With the introduction of multiple fireplaces and hearths, chimneys were built in the middle of the house or on an end wall, with the number of chimney pots indicating the number of hearths. The chimney stack grew in height as it stopped embers falling on to thatched or wooden roofing. They also became a status symbol, developing ornate brickwork. In Horsham, with its stone roofs, such chimneys purely portrayed the wealth of the householder. The pot on top was cheaper than building the brick stack but it too became ornamental as well as functional.
Another feature of the hearth, firedogs, or to give them their proper name, andirons, are also popular antiques. However, because they are portable and not built into the house, they are harder to date. Though they existed in medieval times and earlier, the more well-known cast iron versions appeared in England around 1540.
Though they could be plain and simple, the fronts soon became decorative with other metal embellishments. Firedogs came in pairs to support logs and allow air to flow underneath, causing the flame to burn more efficiently. By the middle of the 19th century, they became less popular as the stove developed but by then, they had become a collectable antique.
Today, we have thermostatically controlled heating, radiator sand fan heaters scattered throughout the house heating individual rooms. Despite this, the hearth is still central to the home, as shown in the trend for the kitchen to be the centre of the house.
So, after 800 years, when the large hall house had one room heated by one fire and life continued around it, with animals living with humans to keep warm, we have updated our living quarters but we still have the hearth as the centre of the home.
Chimneys were built in the middle of the house or on an end wall, with the pots indicating the number of hearths JEREMY KNIGHT curator at Horsham Museum