Keswick light oak

The Oak Keswick is available in Oak or Pine and is made from solid timber as with all mantels supplied from Knapp Woodworking it is of outstanding quality. This picture is just a little taste of the new mantels coming from Knapp Woodworking next month, August.

Keswick Shelf

Pine or Oak beam, with solid wood corbels made from solid  oak or pine and made in England by skilled craftsmen from Knapp woodworking.

The Keswick Shelf will complement any stove as in the picture, or if you haven’t got a fireplace as with many modern apartments or flats just fit the Keswick shelf and create a stunning fireplace feature in all your chosen rooms, for displaying a lovely clock or your favorite family photos.

The Keswick Shelf is available in two standard sizes or can be made any size you require just phone for a quote.

To buy the Keswick Shelf click here

A magnificent George II carved white marble chimneypiece by William Kent, circa 1735, from the Saloon, est. £200,000-300,000. Photo: Sotheby's

A carved, painted, faux-marble and gilt chimneypiece with carving to a design by William Kent, est. £10,000-15,000. Photo: Sotheby's

Some marble fireplace lost and forgotten in the attic, are found and go up for sale in an auction organised by Sotheby’s and will be held at Chatsworth.

A magnificent George II carved white marble chimneypiece by William Kent, circa 1735, from the Ballroom, est. £200,000-300,000. Photo: Sotheby's

The Duke of Devonshire said ” The attics are absolutely choc a block” “we need to make some space and that’s why we’re having the sale”.

With some 20,000 objects made into over 1000 lots which will be viewed in a series of marques in the grounds of  Chatsworth.

Viewing from the 1st October, the house and grounds will still be open to the public during the sale and viewings.

So if you have £200,000 + spare here are some fireplace bargain’s from one of the best Country houses in England.

After the auction has taken place (between 5th and 7th October) I will post the selling prices for these three fireplaces, so watch this space.

Now can you see a slight resemblance with the top picture, our mantel that we call the Albert mantel in wood, at sixty inches wide its a smaller version I know but it looks similar!!  don’t forget we can make wooden mantels in any shape and size, if you come up with a design we will copy it for you.

Some of the most beautiful fireplaces you will see any where just a little snippet of the amazing things to see at Chatsworth and the gardens are stunning too.

Chatsworth House fireplace

Chatsworth House fireplace

Chatsworth House fireplace

Chatsworth House fireplace

Chatsworth House fireplace

Chatsworth House fireplace

I’m Dean, I have been meaning to write a blog for our website for a couple of months now but I have been busy learning and taking in as much information for my new job, I haven’t had the time.

Since 2008 I have been working at Knapp Woodworking (Victorian Fireplaces sister company) making wooden mantels, it has been a very good job that I have enjoyed very much. There was a certain skill needed which I was sure would always have new things to do and learn.

When I started I was quite surprised of how nice the mantels looked when they were finished and the time taken in making each one was worth it. I also liked hearing back from customers of how pleased they were with their mantels we had made for them a day or 2 earlier.

After working in the workshop for nearly 2 years I was asked if I would like to consider a place working in the office alongside David and Daniel. As I have always shown an interest in computers and one of my main hobbies is working and learning about computers (although this is not the most physical hobbies in the world, I enjoy it very much) I gladly accepted to start working in the office.

I am still getting to grips with a lot of the many kinds of mantels and didn’t realise how much more of a selection there is other than the wooden mantels. Such as the many types of Cast Iron Combinations, Cast Iron Inserts or the huge selection of Fireplace Tiles to choose from.

There is quite a lot to learn not just the products but also the office side as well such as customer relations, order processing and how the website works which is run by Daniel, our in house website designer. I am very much looking forward to having a bright future as a part of the office team.

This is the first but defiantly not the last time I will be writing something on the blog, whether it’s a review on a product or just general fireplace news there will be many blog entries to come.

Just came across this lovely painting by Helen Allingham (1846- 1926), In the Nursery as you can see I do like beautiful paintings, and when they have a large fireplace in the picture even better. One of the best places to see and find out more about this artist is at the Helen Allingham Society.

The Fireplace Girl
A long time ago, when women and children were just starting to come to the colonies in America, an 8 year old named Sara moved to Jamestown with her mother and father. They were very rich and lived in a huge house with a fireplace in every room.
One night Sara was woken up around midnight by sounds coming from downstairs. She thought it was one of her parents, because they often stayed up late. She called out to them but she got no answer. Then she heard an unfamilar voice say “The girl. We forgot about her. We got the parents but not the girl.” Sara was really scared because she understood enough about what the
voice had said to know that her parents were hurt.
So she ran to her fireplace and crawled up the chimney to hide. She stayed there for at least 3 hours, all the while whimpering “oh my mama, oh my papa” Finally, after she felt it was safe to to come out, she slid out of the fireplace and ran to her parents’ room. But when she got to their door, she found she was to frightened
to go in. So she searched the rest of the house for clues as to who the voice belonged to. But she found nothing. In fact, the only thing wrong with the house
was that several things were missing, but Sara didn’t care. She knew that she had to go up to her parents’ room now, and she did.
She ran into the room and over to the bed. Sara pulled the sheets back, screamed in terror and fell to the floor. When a family friend found the two adults and the child, all three were dead. The parents’ bodies were horribly mangled but little Sara appeared to have nothing wrong with her, she was just dead.
The family was buried in the cemetery up the road. No one was ever convicted for murdering the family, and the case is still open, although they know that the murderers are long dead. But Sara doesn’t seem to know that. Because every
night, from midnight till three, the time she spent in the fireplace, she walks from the cemetery to the place where her house used to be, looking for the
people who murdered her parents.
The Fireplace Girl, by Kara M.

The Fireplace
It’s said that these events actually happened. And they may have happened in a house much like yours, in a neighborhood much like yours.
Jason and Jacqueline were newlyweds. They had been married for just under one year. They were still very much in love.
Jason was a tall, handsome man with a cheerful ring in his voice. Jacqueline had beautiful, long brown hair, green eyes and a soft lilt in her sweet voice.
Every evening, they both rushed home from work so that they’d have plenty of time to enjoy each other’s company.
They particularly enjoyed sipping on a glass of wine in front of the fireplace. Only, they never lit a fire.
Every night Jason asked his wife: “Wouldn’t it be nice to light a fire in the fireplace?”
And every night she answered: “Why don’t we do it another time, dear.”
Or: “I think it will make the living room too dusty with soot and ash.”
Or: “Perhaps we need to have the chimney cleaned first.”
Or: “Isn’t it too hot tonight?”
And every night Jason said: “Oh…well, OK.”
And that was that.
Still, as small a thing as it might seem, Jason really thought that it would be great to light a fire in the fireplace. Then he and Jacqueline could snuggle up on the sofa while they sipped their nightly glass of wine.
So, one day, Jason decided to surprise Jacqueline. He left work early and on the way home he stopped at the store. He purchased logs and tinder.
When he got home he made a roaring fire.
Then he opened a bottle of the best red wine they had and sat down on the couch to wait for Jacqueline to come home.
Pretty soon he got thirsty. So, he poured himself a glass of wine and one for Jacqueline, too.
As Jason sipped on his wine, he thought to himself: “This is great! Jacqueline is going to love this!”
He’d had a busy day at work and it was warm in the living room so pretty soon he fell asleep.
Only, Jason wasn’t quite sure if he was really asleep or awake. He FELT like he was asleep, but he seemed to still be sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace.
Anyway, he couldn’t quite be sure, but he thought he heard strange noises. They sounded like the screams of people in pain. Jason shivered despite the warm fire.
Then Jason thought he smelled a horrible smell. The room began to fill with smoke and Jason could barely see.
Just then he heard the key in the front door.
He got up off the sofa clutching the two wine glasses, very excited to see Jacqueline despite the strange noises, bad smells and smoke.
He got to the front door and nearly fell down in shock.
An old woman had entered the house. She wore the same dress and necklace as Jacqueline, but everything else about her was different. Her hair was grey and tangled. Her face was wrinkled and her nose was crooked. Her teeth stuck out at different angles. And her eyes were a fiery, fearsome red instead of a beautiful, placid green.
A thousand thoughts raced through Jason’s head in an instant. This was Jacqueline’s mother? A monster had eaten Jacqueline and put on her clothes? Jacqueline was playing a joke on him? He’d had too much to drink? It must be a bad dream?
Then the woman spoke: “I thought I told you,” she said in a low voice. “Never, EVER light a fire in the fireplace!” her voice grew to a shrill roar.
Jason was so surprised that he dropped the two wine glasses. They crashed to the floor.
“You’ve found the bodies,” shrieked the woman, “now, you must join them!”
She lunged towards Jason and, grabbing his arm, tried to throw him into the fireplace.
Jason was stunned, but he managed to dodge out of the way. Without another thought he ran out the open front door and down the street.
After running for two blocks he finally stopped, his heart still pounding from fear and excitement. He looked back and saw that his house was on fire.
Without thinking he ran back to his house to rescue Jacqueline.
But when he got there the house was completely engulfed in flames. The firemen finally put out the fire after fighting it for two hours.
A few hours later the fire inspector came by to determine the cause of the fire.
“Have you been storing wood or fuel in the chimney?” he asked.
“No, sir,” replied Jason, “why do you ask?”
“It seems that someone lit a fire in the fireplace and that a highly combustible material there caught fire. Basically, your chimney just blew up.”
“Oh,” said Jason, and then he proceeded to tell the fire inspector the whole story about the strange woman.
The fire inspector eyed him suspiciously and then said: “You must be in shock. No bodies were found in the house so I don’t think there was anyone there, and if there was, she must have escaped.”
Jason never found out what happened. He never again saw the strange old woman, and his beautiful wife, Jacqueline disappeared. She’d last been seen leaving work.
Jason moved away and spent many years trying to find Jacqueline, but he never did.
And what of the house? The charred remains of the house are still there. Jason tried to sell the property, but no one wanted it.
People say that it’s haunted. Neighbors report that on dark nights they see fires glowing and hear shrieks of pain coming from the empty lot.
Ghost hunters (people who research supernatural phenomena) have tried to track down Jason and the location of the burnt out house, but no one seems to know where they are.
They could be anywhere…

The Fireplace , by Paul Arinaga

Kingston Fitzwilliam Fireplace

Our customers will forward some pictures when it has been fitted, its nice to see the end result. Especially when its such a lovely fireplace as this is.

Its such a relief now all the snow and ice has gone from the roads it did cause a few problems on our deliveries but we over came them.

We have had a few changes in our office over the Christmas break and the start of the new year. Dean has joined us in the office, his back ground is as a Mantel maker in the Factory of Knapp woodworking our sister company which makes all our wooden Mantels. His roll will be to keep an eye on all our sales processing and customer relations. So If you have a problem just email Dean and he can sort it out straight away. Dean will also be trained into the Arts of our websites and help Dan in the creation and running of our fireplace websites, which you may not be aware are all created in house by Dan, and are the envy of the fireplace trade.

Over the next few weeks I will post more interesting articles about fireplaces and some more unusual fireplace articles, so keep an eye out on this blog you will see it first here.