Fireplaces

4.8

In English homes the fireplace has always been the center of interest in a room. For many months of the year people like to sit round the fire and watch the dancing flames.

In the Middle Ages the fireplaces in the halls of large castles were very wide. Only wood was burnt. Large logs were carried from the wood and put into the fireplace. Such wide fireplaces you may see in old inns, and in some of them there are even seats inside the fireplace.

Fireplaces were decorated with woodwork, there was a painting or a mirror over it When people began to use coal, not wood, fireplaces became much smaller. Grates (metal baskets) were used to hold the coal. Above the fireplace there was usually a shelf on which there was a clock, and sometimes photographs.