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| Bolton Castle. Photo by Peter K. Burian. |
When stone buildings arrived in England, along with the
Normans, after 1066, they arrived not with chimneys but featured hearths with
diagonal flues, through the wall behind, for the escape of smoke. These fireplaces were, as the rule, placed in
the great hall and common private sleeping space on the floor above. No other spaces had fireplaces. Those that did had to be operated as the
prevailing wind conditions would allow.
Being diagonal — nearly horizontal — an adverse wind could make it
impossible to keep a fire.
To find the following in Thomas Hudson Turner’s Account
of Domestic Architecture, then, as I was researching other matters, came as
a surprise. Especially as I had been suitably
impressed by Turner’s work to this point.
In our first volume the use of fire-places and chimneys in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was abundantly shewn, and it is almost
needless to observe that they continued in constant use throughout the
fourteenth century also. We have stated that they were not yet commonly used in
the hall, but in the other chambers their use was almost universal; we
frequently find a fire-place and chimney in every room in the house except the
hall.[1]
As I cast around for answers — besides one or the other of
us having to be profoundly wrong — I began to suspect that we meant two very
different things by the word “chimney”.
Another even more exceptional work of 19th century
scholarship argued for my theory. Walter
Bernan, “Civil Engineer,” confirmed in his History and Art of Warming and Ventilating
Rooms that the word was used loosely for centuries thus confusing matters.
It has been seen, that, previous to the erection of this
stronghold, the word chimeney is of frequent occurrence. Chaucer in several places
speaks of chambers with chimeneys; Longlande we have seen also employs it: and
Wiclif, in his translation of the New Testament, in 1380, has the expression,
"thei schulen send him into the chymeney of fier."[2]
In the poetical vocabulary, "chimeney" appears to
be synonymous with "fireplace," or "hearth recess;…"[3].
The effect of this was that Turner was confused on the
subject. He made several blatantly
incorrect observations, incorrectly cited several buildings as examples of the common
nature of chimneys in 12th century
England. He also made a number of
observations that were quite helpful once his mistaken premise was filtered
out.
As it turns out, Mr. Bernan, provides a quote that puts all
in perspective:
The fourth example of a chimney in an English building is
that described by Leland, in his Itinerary, where he gives an account of
his visit to Bolton Castle. This building, he says, " standethe on a roke
syde; and all the substaunce of the lodgynge in it be included in 4 principall
toures. It was finiched or Kynge Richard the 2 dyed ! One thynge I muche notyd
in the hawle of Bolton, how chimeneys were conveyed by tunnells made on the
syds of the walls betwyxt the lights in the hawle, and by this means, and by no
covers is the smoke of the harthe in the hawle wonder strangely conveyed."[4]
The famous Royal antiquary, John Leland, source of a great
deal of detailed information about the towns and countryside of England during
the reign of Henry VIII, stood awestruck before a full-length vertical chimney
as if he were standing before the Hagia Sophia.
Ending his years of walking tours in the early 1540s, Leland was probably
the only man of the time who had personally trod the majority of the soil of
England and Wales. In a phrase, he had
seen everything yet never until then a full-length vertical chimney.
Bernan’s analysis of Leland’s text, here, is precisely
correct and to the point.
Leland, who wrote a century after, in using the word almost
defines it. "The chimeneys were conveyed by tunnels;" or, in other
words, the fireplace was continued by a tunnel to the top of the building;—a
description that will accurately fix the meaning of the word when found in
writers previous to the Tudor period; for it is quite obvious the chimneys in
common use, and with which Leland was acquainted, had no tunnels to convey the
smoke from the hearth—otherwise his admiration of those in Bolton Castle would
have been unexplainable.[5]
Turner, generally capable though he is, has already
developed an architectural theory with full-length chimneys and can only characterize
Leland’s words as “strangely opposed” to texts and interpretations in which he
is heavily invested.[6]
[1]
Turner, Thomas Hudson. Some Account
of Domestic Architecture in England, From Edward I to Richard II.
(1853). II. 88.
[2]
The source of the English word is the Latin Caminus meaning a furnace or
oven. The Old French cheminée
referred to both a fireplace and a chimney.
[3]
Bernan, Walter. On the History and
Art of Warming and Ventilating Rooms and Buildings (1845). 110.
[4]
Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Turner. “It must he confessed, however, that in
investigating the antiquity of chimneys, well ascertained facts are strangely opposed
to the statements of respectable writers of early times. Thus in the sixteenth century we find Leland
expressing some wonder at a chimney in Bolton castle,…” etc. I. xviii.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- Margaret Paston’s Famous Letter. April 22, 2019. “But the most famous matter in her letters was a small thing. It arrived to John who was attending to business in London in July of 1461.”
- Shakespeare’s Barnacles. March 3, 2016. “Prospero will wake, he fears, before they can murder him, and will cast a spell on them.”
- A Medieval Hodge-Podge. March 17, 2019. “The hogge pot had already existed for centuries, however. Many who fail to realize this have given spurious derivations to the name.”
- The King's Esnecce. January 13, 2019. “It comes as no surprise, then, that when Maud’s son, Henry Plantagenet, Count or Duke of most of the western territories of France, and, by terms of the treaty, heir to Stephen, next rose to the throne as Henry II, he was quick to arrange for the safest possible means of transit across the channel.”
- Check out the Medieval Topics Article Index for many more articles about this fascinating time.
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time.
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