HOW JW ENGINEERING CAME TO MANUFACTURE CORNISH RANGES

Several years ago John Woodward, Proprietor of JW Engineering, acquired a set of extremely old cast iron castings and decided to embark on a personal project to recreate for himself a new version of the Victorian cooking and heating appliance, known as the Cornish Range.  The end product surpassed all expectations.  The intricate cast iron work, combined with the decorative solid brass knobs, make the Cornish Range a perfect focal point of any kitchen.  

If you already own a Cornish Range which requires rebuilding, a new lease of life or a few spare parts for it, please do not hesitate to contact JW Engineering - we can probably help.

Nothing can beat the sight of a real fire and with one of our Cornish Ranges installed you will never again have to worry about power cuts.     

JW Engineering also carries out refurbishment work to traditional Cornish Ranges.  To view a video filmed by one of our customers, please click video.

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.  

BUILDING A NEW CORNISH RANGE

Our new Cornish Range comes in kit form and can be assembled and installed by a competent builder.

TRADITIONAL BUILDING OF A CORNISH RANGE

The traditional way of building a Cornish Range is to build the body out of approximately 130 common red bricks and lime mortar. The fire box is constructed out of fire bricks and the ironwork is sealed to the bricks using lime mortar and fire cement.

WORKING ARRANGEMENTS OF THE CORNISH RANGE

There were several methods of operation, the most common being the hot smoke passed over the top of the oven, down the far side, then underneath. From there it would travel into a brick flue which was constructed centrally at the back and ran from the foot to the top of the range. Two thirds of the way up this flue there was a damper. This damper was pulled out to increase the draught and it was the main way of controlling the fire, albeit not very efficiently, hence the section of verse in a well-known Cornish folk song ‘you push the damper in and you pull the damper out and the smoke went up the chimney just the same’.   

If there was insufficient room at the back, the range could be built so that after the smoke passed under the oven it went through a hole below the firebox and then up through a flue on the side. This was known as a side-damper. Some foundries, like Troys of Helston, had yet another arrangement with a damper at the bottom of the range.

HISTORY OF THE CORNISH RANGE

There are two quite distinct types of Cornish Range.  Although they look different from the outside, they employ the same principle. Compared with different designs from other counties, the Cornish Range was by far the most efficient of all Victorian kitchen ranges. 

The West Cornwall Range

Sometimes known as ‘The Apparatus’, the ‘Cornish Range’ was more commonly referred to as a ‘Slab’.   The Cornish Range was given its name because of the variety of ways in which it could be put to use.  It not only serviced as an 'in-house' heating appliance but was also used as an oven, with the hotplate providing sufficient heat to boil kettles and warm irons.   

What little research has been done indicates that the general arrangement arrived around the 1830's in Redruth.  They remained in production until just before the Second World War, the last being made by St Just Foundry in Penwith. 

During the mid to late Victorian Age, just about every Cornish house would have had a Cornish Range, from the most common 30 inch wide hotplate in the working class cottage to the huge Manor House ranges with slabs up to 6 feet in length.

Apart from the big foundries like Harvey's, Copperhouse, Holman's and Piran, most Cornish towns had one or more small foundries, especially if they were situated in one of the mining districts. All of these foundries, apart from selling complete ranges themselves, would also sell castings to the town and village blacksmiths to complete in their own style and sell under their own name.  An example is the damper casting (shown below) which was mass produced and a common feature on most Camborne Redruth Cornish Ranges.

Using Camborne as an example, there was the large Holman foundry and engineering works situated in the north-east of the town.  There No. 3 works and foundry was sited at the foot of Trevu Road.

E T Sara foundry was based at Redbrooke Road.  They made Cornish Ranges to sell under their own name and for C E Thomas, an ironmonger in Commercial Street.

There was also a blacksmith in Camborne by the name of John Jenkin.  He ran his business from 118 Trelowarren Street selling Cornish Ranges using his own name.

The foundries had certain key designs which were generally incorporated and these can be used to identify the castings.  For example, Holman's of Camborne usually had a large rose, thistle and shamrock in a cluster normally on the front casting.

One decorative relief common to most ranges is the Royal Coat of Arms - which is normally featured once, if not twice. Whereas the majority of the decorative designs are flowers, fruit and neo-classical scrolls etc.  One unusual feature which occurs quite often in the Camborne/Redruth area, but as yet to be explained, is a bird with an eagle’s beak and a crest on its head.  The production of the West Cornwall Cornish Range seems to stop at Truro with J Wills foundry.  

The North Cornwall Range

Moving up the county, the first foundries known to manufacture the North Cornwall type of Cornish Range was Oakley & Martyn of Wadebridge and H Jenkin of St Austell.  Just over the county border into Devon both Plymouth and Exeter had their own type of Ranges. The North Cornwall Range did not have the sheet metal canopy or any of the decorative castings associated with the West Cornwall Cornish Range.  The damper was set into the chimney which was built into the wall of the fireplace and incorporated a one-piece fire door rather than a double fire door.

The demise of the Cornish Range was brought about by several things, ie. the disappearance of the numerous town and village foundries which relied so heavily on the 19th century copper and tin mines, coupled with the arrival of more modern cooking appliances like the Aga and Rayburn etc.