You’ve probably gathered from previous posts that I think the best way to keep warm in a Victorian vicarage is to install wood burning stoves. These were definitely the top investment that we made on moving into our arctic home. When we visited soon after the Vicar was appointed to the job, we realised just how cold the house was. We could see damp creeping up the fireplace walls, and parishioners talked about shivering their socks off when they visited.
The Vicar’s mum and my parents had both had stoves installed in the past few years, and we enjoyed their warmth very much. The eco-friendly nature also appealed. As did the prospect of possibly heating ourselves for free by scavenging the wood.
We don
God willing, we would like to stay here for a good few years, so we’ve spent a lump of savings on buying and installing two Neria Bohemia 60 stoves. The selection of the stoves was not that difficult. When we went to the shop, this was the only one of the right size that they had two of! We also like their rather modern looking design and so far they have been wonderful – practical and attractive.
Yesterday we had both of them fired up – the one in the red room, our tidy public room, because the Vicar had a bereaved lady who came over to plan her father’s funeral, and the green family room one cos that’s how we keep the family warm. The Vicar lays the fires at lunchtime so they are ready to go whenever we need them.
So far we’ve only had to pay for matches. We’ve been using packing paper from our move and shreddings from the study at the base of the fire, chopped up pallets and twigs from the garden and churchyard for kindling and then heavier logs once the heart of the fire is going. The logs have been sourced from all over: local people we know who have been chopping trees down (sometimes with the Vicar’s help), building sites (with permission of course) and the Vicar’s golf course. The Vicar tells me that this justifies the cost of his club membership.
A hidden benefit of using wood as a fuel is the view I get from my kitchen window when the Vicar is chopping the logs. Very hunter gatherer. Getting them installed was a bit of a palaver. I’ll blog on that another time, but for now I’ll show you what they look like in my two downstairs rooms (unlit, cos I took the photos this morning) and you can enjoy the toastiness.
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- This room looks a lot cosier when the fire is lit
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- Cool ash bucket, eh? Just got it from Ikea the other day
The Vicar's Wife 
Sp. see me! ScavEnging. Anyway, you were brought up with a Pither stove (anthracite, and warming some at least of the house) and a modern open fire that burned smokeless fuel and logs sourced anywhere. The upside is these stoves are good for bringing families perforce together: downside includes dust, chimneys to be swept, dust and sometimes more dust, teenage children complaining of cold bedrooms, and, since you ask, dust. But there’s still nothing better than the smell of a wood fire.
Thank you Grumpy. Spelling corrected. Not too much dust with our wood burning stoves, I’m pleased to say. We’re still holding out without the central heating and this morning the fire was still smouldering, so we just stoked it up again.
Are your wood burners also able to use anthracite? You get a lot more heat from using it and you can just about let the stoves run until the weather improves. All you have to do is empty the ash tray regularly. You can always add logs when you want to get that flame effect. It will, of course, ruin the view of the hunter-gathering vicar but it might be good for his back in the long-term!
Hi Tim. I think we could use anthracite – the stoves are meant to be multi fuel. But how could I cope without watching my husband chopping wood? It cheers up my day 🙂 Also the wood is free, anthracite not (and also less eco). But we may resort to solid fuel when it gets really cold.