Chimney-shaft and Chimney-vent (13th cent.).
73. Abingdon Abbey.
Orifice of Chimney-vent.
Although the early keeps were usually warmed (if warmed it may be called) by fireplaces, there are exceptions such as the Peak Castle, where there are no signs of such accommodation. How these places were heated is not apparent, but as flues of lath and plaster were occasionally used, and the hoods of fireplaces were sometimes formed of wood, it is probable that a perishable expedient of this nature was adopted.
74. Abingdon Abbey, Berkshire.
Fireplace (13th cent.).
Chimneys.—It has already been pointed out that in quite early times, as at Castle Hedingham, the fireplace flue was not carried up to any great height, but was shortly conducted to an orifice in the face of the wall (see Fig. 6). There is a fireplace of even earlier date, similarly contrived, at Colchester Castle. It is doubtful whether any example of a chimney-shaft of Norman times is to be found. One of the earliest remaining chimney-shafts is at Abingdon Abbey on the Thames in Berkshire (Fig. 72), a well-known river landmark. The large square stack contains a single flue, which rises from the fireplace of the upper room, and delivers its smoke through the vertical openings at the summit. In the fireplace of the lower room the earlier method was adopted, and the smoke emerged from the little projection in the wall to the left of the base of the large stack: a plan of the orifice is given in Fig. 73. The date of this work is about the middle of the thirteenth century. The fireplace which is served by the large flue is shown in Fig. 74. Of much the same date are the fireplaces at Stokesay, of one of which the remains are shown in Fig. 75. The wooden kerb or frame supported by the corbels appears to be of the original date, and must have carried a wooden hood. But as a rule these hoods were of stone as at Abingdon Abbey. The earliest fireplaces were flush with the wall, but it was soon found necessary to introduce a projecting hood in order to catch the smoke—a contrivance familiar to us, though on a small scale, in many modern fire-grates.
