We explored the central chimney today and discovered a sort of secret room in the basement under the brick oven. There is no ash shute, so it can’t be an ash pit unless they carried the ashes down for that purpose. It might have been a smokehouse for smoking meats - No chimney would be required in a smokehouse. It measured about 2 x 3 x 4 high. The roof is made of wood beams on which are laid the first floor hearth. There is no noticeable smoke smell, but then it probably has been 100 years since it was last used to smoke meats.

We also discovered that the bake oven is fairly traditional in its design, although it has what would have been fairly expensive blacksmithed hearth spanners made of iron. These had to be made to fit by a blacksmith and were a quite expensive addition for a dirt farmer – although they provided a real measure of fire protection as opposed to the common 10 x 10 wooden beam which all too often was the cause of a house burning down.

The narrow fireplace upstairs, we were told, is used only to hold embers to take the chill off while sleeping. The chimney is inadequate for a roaring blaze, but the higher fireplace held lots of hot coals which were brought upstairs – warmed the hearth and chimney bricks which, in turn, radiated some heat all through the chilly fall and winter nights.