Inspiration delivered

Among Ripe Lane’s very many original features (which, in part, have contributed to its rare Grade II* listing) is a wide, inglenook fireplace in the house’s living room. Inglenook has, to some, come to act as a stand-in for any wide fireplace in the house, when in fact it has rather more specific history: from the old Scots ‘ingle’, meaning a domestic fire, the word quite literally refers to a distinct (though small) space for people to gather within. A true inglenook is people-sized, with space to sit down – much like the example here, in Lewes. The room is still orientated towards the fireplace today, though the fire is now contained within a log burner, and the seating arrangement at a much safer distance away from its flames.

Peeres Cottage, Stockport, Greater Manchester

Fairytale through and through, this 17th-century stone cottage has masterfully struck that elusive balance between updating and preserving, reimagining and reinstating. Its historic, beam-framed core has been added to with a contemporary kitchen that retains a textured vernacular stone wall along one side.

But we’re here, on the leafy outskirts of Manchester, to discuss fireplaces, and this house has a particularly lovely one: its timber-encased living room is orientated towards a beautiful stone surround (fitted with a log-burning stove inside), where carved-in tulips remind us of the enchanting garden that tumbles out from the rear of the house.

The second oldest building in Barnard Castle (after, well, 

castle), Blagraves is a spectacular Grade I-listed house that has seen many iterations over the course of its long life: it has served as an antiques shop, a ‘house of mystery museum’ and as an inn where Oliver Cromwell stayed during his 17th-century civil war campaign. As such, Blagraves is an architectural palimpsest, the layers of its history intermingling with one another.

Two large and arresting stone fireplaces in the main houses, impressive though they are, are perhaps only upstaged by the even larger 19th-century stone carved fireplace in the separate dining room across the house’s sweet courtyard, a proudly Victorian room with its towering ceilings and dark wooden panelling. It doesn’t stop here, though: upstairs, a sublime black-painted fireplace is flanked by original Delft tiles.

If a fireplace surround is not quite ornament enough for a fireplace, Skinner Road has a solution for you. Believed to be the work of an itinerant Dutch artist, the house has a series (16, to be exact) of intricate wall paintings that have been exceptionally preserved and displayed within mounted frames. One – a long, panoramic piece showing gardens and figures – stretches above a comparatively simple moulded fire surround with a log-burning stove within.

A second four-painting-strong panel unfolds above the fireplace in the dining room, making for an exceptionally impressive dinner-party-hosting spot. The splendid fireplaces needn’t stop there, though: tucked in the separate sitting room – a comfortable yet majestic room – is an additional inglenook fireplace, with a tasteful square of the building’s brick framework exposed beneath.

Parsonage Farm, East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire

Symmetry is a popular conceit at Parsonage Farm, from its Queen Anne frontage (a later addition to the original timber-framed 17th-century house) to its compellingly cultivated grounds. It’s evident in the finer details too, such as the impressive surrounds that frame several of the house’s fireplaces. Though functional in origin (‘mantelpieces’, as they were initially, and 

known, were first added to catch smoke), surrounds are where flair and impressive craftsmanship can be demonstrated. One, located in the house’s drawing room, is particularly exceptional: made of marble, it is an original survival of a baroque design and has been richly carved. An overmantel panel above is a particularly striking focal point to the room, with plenty of space to place postcards, art or much-loved trinkets atop.

, a rather spectacularly preserved and restored house in the heart of Hastings’ Old Town. Each room is imbued with an authentic rusticity that, while thoroughly updated for modern life, could have you thinking that you’d been transported to the 16th century. A fully functional chimney stack and fireplaces were reinstated as a part of the works and, we’d argue, are an essential part of experiencing the house’s especially distinctive charm in all its fullness. In addition to its brilliantly broad inglenooks (there are two, FYI) is an open fire that’ll have you dreaming of yonder days.

Sophie Sims

Homes

Interiors

Before the advent of central heating (and indeed Netflix’s 60-minute long digital ‘Fireplace for Your Home’), a real fire was the focus of the home. Architectural history can be traced through the stylistic and formal evolution of the fireplace, from open to inglenook to cast iron, surrounded by carved stone or adorned with Delft tiles. As the nights draw in, we celebrate the lighting of autumn’s first fire with six mesmeric examples …

Home fires burning: six homes with fireplaces bound to set hearts alight

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