Home on the range, Teesdale Mercury

Home on the range

Oct 23, 2007

There can't be many open kitchen ranges left in Teesdale. These magnificent black constructions were the focal point of our living rooms a hundred years ago, and Teesdale folk called the living room the ‘kitchen' because it was the room where the food was cooked.

Nowadays, cooking is usually relegated to what used to be called the scullery or the back kitchen. This change has been part of a big social revolution. Barely fifty years ago there can have been few Teesdale houses without a large kitchen range occupying the prime place in the living room. And throughout much of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century this kitchen range dominated much of a house's domestic activity.

The kitchen range developed alongside the growth of the iron industry. At first, in the late 17th century, the rectangular box-grates used in the fireplaces were adapted so that pans and kettles could make use of the fire. The top front bar was widened to accommodate a kettle. An alternative arrangement was to have a fall bar, a top bar that could be dropped forward when needed. You could stand a kettle on the fall bar. Sometimes, trivets were fastened to the sides of the grate and designed to swing over the fire when you needed to boil a kettle quickly. Trivets have been around for a long time. They were usually circular iron rings. A trivet that wasn't fixed to the grate had three feet and was used as a stand for pots and pans. However, when trivets were used in a fire only one foot was needed. They were still called trivets though!

A more sophisticated way of using the fire grate was to make use of the sides of the grate. Upright bars were sometimes attached to each of the sides and joined together above the fire with a cross bar. The old name for the cross bar was the rannel bork, a name with a good Northern ring to it. Then hooks could be added to the rannel bork and pans and kettles hung above the fire. Has anyone still got one of these old grates hidden away in a byre or outhouse? I haven't ever seen one out of a museum. Were there any in ordinary houses in Teesdale or were they confined to the grander houses?

Once the iron industry developed and workshops were able to turn out panels of cast iron in large numbers kitchen ranges became much more efficient and complex. Soon it was discovered that these cast iron panels could be joined together to form a box and hey presto you have a fireproof oven. The next move was to replace the side-bars of the fire-grate with cast iron sheets. The iron oven could then be fastened to these side plates. This wasn't entirely satisfactory because the oven's side nearest to the fire used to get overheated but the rest of the oven was a bit cool. In some cases the oven was supplied with its own fire but this side fire proved difficult to manage. Eventually a way was found to direct warm air from the fire into a space that was designed to go right round the oven. This ingenious system was achieved by using a system of flues which gave an even temperature all round. This high tech solution was a revolution because it meant that the oven and main fire could be brought together for the first time - and reduced the carbon footprint of the household as well! Housewives the length of the dale must have welcomed the convenience of these modern ranges. No longer had they to use an outside oven or one built into the wall of the house - both requiring separate fires.

Local tradesmen were soon able to provide and fit these modern kitchen ranges. From the later years of the 19th century the ranges appeared in advertisements in the Teesdale Mercury. For instance Jonathan Rutter of Bridge End, at Barney, advertised his business as ‘makers of kitchen ranges fit up with hot air ovens'. And in the same year Softlys Ironmongery Store was selling kitchen range accessories such as fenders, fire irons and mantel shams. In the early 20th century W. Smith & Co. of Low Mill Foundry, Barnard Castle, advertised themselves as ‘manufacturers of ranges, ovens grates etc. sole makers of the hot air range on an improved principle'. 

For some people having the oven and fire together was enough of an improvement on the old system but there was a further development that many dales' houses soon acquired. As well as iron boxes being made fireproof they could also be made waterproof and lo and behold we had a boiler that could also be attached to the side of the fire. So by the middle of the 19th century most houses in Teesdale had an open fire with an oven to one side and a water boiler on the other. Then above the fire there was an iron bar on which pans could be suspended, and at a lower level a trivet could be swung onto the top of the fire for a kettle. Finally, high above the fire a mantelpiece was fitted and directly below it a brass rail for drying clothes. And so we have a traditional kitchen range, which quickly became the heart of the house.

And now it has all gone and with it a whole way of life.

First published in the Mercury, October 17 2007