One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ... part 125 ............ a bit of house archaeology

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

Kitchen Range, Croatia, 19th century

I think we are just a little closer to solving one of the mysteries of the house.

And here I have to say it’s not some dark gothic tale of strange things in the night, but more just a little bit of house archaeology.

I have often wondered whether the house had a kitchen range. It was built in 1915 so does qualify, and the flue and aperture are still there.

But back in the 1970s when I first got to know the house any kitchen range had long gone to be replaced by an old-fashioned gas cooker. 

Added to which Joe Scott who was a builder was quick to start using both electricity and gas in the houses he built.

So, it is more than possible that he missed out on the traditional range and went straight for the cooker.

Manchester City Council’s Gas Department were offering very attractive deals to would be customers to install gas and buy cookers from them, either as a cash payment or by weekly instalments. 

The concrete platform, 2021

And now, I think we might be a tad closer to what sat in our kitchen a century and a bit ago, and it comes in the form of a solid concrete platform, which has been hidden by units for nearly 20 years.

Of course, I can’t be certain that having laid down the solid concrete base the Scott’s went for a range at the outset, but at least it suggests a maybe.

Kitchen no.2, 2004

To some this will be a trivial and not very significant discovery, but for those interested in the design of old houses, and the archaeology which goes with them it is fascinating.

In our case this was made possible by the installation of a new kitchen, the third in the 40 or so years we have lived here.

At present we are still in the midst of the work, with the kitchen pretty much an empty shell, although this is  an improvement on the first we put in, when at one point there was just a cement mixer in the room.

And that is it, other than to say the 19th century kitchen range is unlikely to be an exact match for the one Joe and Mary may have used.

It comes from Croatia, and is copyright free, and more than that I like it.

Location; Beech Road

Picture; a kitchen range, from the 19th century, 2015, author Silverije, image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license, the kitchen, 2021, and the kitchen, 2, 2004, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Story of a House, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

How we used to live

Once they would have been in almost every kitchen in the country. They were heavy often repainted over the years and to my mind quite beautiful. 

They were that perfect marriage of simple design and appearance.

And most will have been thrown out in the late 1960s as old fashioned, replaced by sleek plastic and chrome ones with that easy to read circular window.

Bits like the weights might survive at the back of a cabinet or as playthings, but in the fullness of time like the heavy iron balance they would be thrown away.

Which I think is a pity given that to buy a retro version today will cost an arm and a leg.

Picture; from the collection of Graham Gill.