A guide to real life fire places and some interesting historical facts about the humble fireplace.

The fireplace is designed to contain the fire, and then the decorative part is to make the fire a feature in the room.  The fire is normally for warmth however it can also be used for cooking. The place where the fire is inside of the fireplace is called a fire pit or firebox and these can be made to measure. Since the fire emits smoke, it is essential to then have a chimney or other type of opening to let gases escape from the building, we will get more on to chimneys in a moment.

Before you choose your fire you will have to decide on what type of fuel it will use, do you want a safe gas fire, a ‘fake it’ fire with electricity with gas effect or do you want a real fuel fire such as wood or coal.

Once you have decided on the fire, and if it is a real fire you will have to go with wood burners or coal burning fire. If you do decide this you will need a way to light the fire. A useful device when lighting fires is a bellows. A bellows provides pressurised air in the required amounts to the required location. The inlet draws air in and outlet nozzle creates a space for the pressurised air to escape from.  

So once you have your fire roaring you of course need to keep safe with your chimney. Chimney sweeping is often thought of as a dirty job, I’ll give you a bit of history here.  When chimneys were first required it was then realised that they were going to need to be cleaned, hence chimney sweeps. In this time chimney sweeps realised small children were better for this and started to employ them for, what is reported, very little money however this was unsafe work. There was public outcry of this and in 1840 a law was passed that made it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to sweep chimneys, and this law is still in practice now. In the modern world it is not required so much as innovations in the 20th century, and inventions such as the special brush that we see in use today that is telescopic and has a head which is able to sweep the chimney with the added aid of a special vacuum the dust is all contained and doesn’t go everywhere.

It is rare these days to see a chimney sweep working but if you look close enough you might see the end of a brush poking out of a chimney near you, but you will also require fireside accessories.

A warming coal fire can bring great pleasure during the winter months  and the months leading up to summer and in spring if it has items of fireplace accessories it will look more attractive by the minute. Now your fire is alive you will be able to enjoy it endlessly. For your dream made to measure fireplaces visit the fireside shop now.