The Medieval Chimney: Not What You Might Think.

Bolton Castle.  Photo by Peter K. Burian.

Concerning an earlier piece I wrote [link], I mentioned to a commenter that the chimney had not arrived in England until the 11^th  century.  Even then, it was extremely rare, available only to the wealthiest and most progressive.  It did not become a common architectural feature, even among the wealthy, until the 16^th century.  For this reason, it was  not possible to cook with an open  flame in an early medieval cottage.  All such cooking took place out of doors.

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 19^th 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 12^th 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]

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[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.