Recent research for a novel based in 17th century England highlighted just how much fireplaces and chimneys can tell us about how our ancestors lived. These architectural features were not simply essential tools for living, they were the very heart of the home. They tell us too about technological advances at the time of build, as well as changing styles of interior decor. Furniture may become sawdust and textiles may rot but hearths remain to tell their tale.

The word hearth was originally used simply to describe the part of a room where the fire was made; initially constructed  simply by beating the earth to compress it. This fireplace came to be constructed from stone, brick and tiles, the earliest fires being retained in a simple shallow stone pit.

Similarly, chimney design went through a number of changes before they became something we would recognise today. The first chimneys were, in fact, simple holes in the roof that allowed the smoke to escape, thereby freeing householders from choking on it, and they tended to be confined to cooking areas and kitchens. As always, necessity was the mother of invention.

Governments and rulers have always understood that taxation on necessities is a good earner, and fire has always been a necessity, so it was that the Anglo-Saxons paid their smoke farthings to the king, unless they were deemed to be too poor to afford it. Then, in 1662, the English government levied a tax on all hearths, save those in the meanest cottages.  This 17th century tax was a profitable one and, at two shillings per hearth,  resulted in £170,000 a year flowing into the government’s coffers; it was also unpopular tax and was repealed in 1689.

From the 12th century onwards, chimneys survive in profusion, however they were so costly that only the rich could afford them, the rest of the population relied on timber smoke hoods were used to draw the smoke from the room. The wisdom of using timber to build a structure so close to an open fire is debateable. Up until this time, dwellings were simply one storey constructs; it wasn’t until masonry chimneys and fireplaces replaced the smoke hoods that ordinary houses could have more than one floor.

By the 17th century, however, chimneys had become so desirable an architectural feature that  houses were actually designed around them.  This is why, in some homes from that era, you will see that a stone chimney stack is the sole supporting structure for not just one house, but the one next door too.

It is, though, from the fire’s fittings and accoutrements that we can learn most about how life was lived.