I am often asked to provide a stove for the back cabin of a working narrow boat. More often than not original examples of these stoves are missing and only a handful of boats in the Uk actually have one still on board. All sorts of different stoves were used, not necessarily models specific to boats although there were several types produced back in the day.
The most common examples I have seen are the Guidwife, Beetonette and Larbert portable ranges but it was the Guidwife in particular that the boatmen and women preferred and it is a Guidwife that is the only remaining original stove in any Uk museum collection. These would all have been of the 24″ wide variety for Butty boats with a depth varying from 16″-17″ excluding the trivets that clipped onto the front of the range.
All would have had slight modifications to ‘marinise’ them for example the feet would have been removed and a brass ‘fiddle rail’ or ‘galley rail’ would have been fitted. This stopped any pots and pans falling off the hot plate should the boat get knocked or bashed when out on its daily duties.
The stove would have sat on the swim plate on the left hand side as you entered through the cabin doors at the stern.
Rarer still is the 20″ Larbert stove that was used for motorboats. Motorboats provide a problem since unlike the Butty, they have a deep Gunwale that limits the space for the stove sat on the swim plate.. The 20″ Larbert sat neatly into the back cabin however and was complete with all its ornaments like the polished brass fiddle rail.
There are several back cabin stoves now commonly used on boats of all shapes and sizes but all are reproductions and are not authentic to the historic working boat. These are the ubiquitous ‘Epping’ stove, the ‘Stratford 1910’ and the ‘Premier’ the later being based on the ‘Nipper’ stove that had some limited use in working boats in the past.
Here at O.J.Osborne & Co we can source, restore and provide you authentic original examples of back cabin stoves. 24″ examples are extremely rare but they do come up and I always try to keep a couple in stock.
PLEASE NOTE O.J.OSBORNE & CO. WILL BE RELEASING PRODUCTIONS RUNS OF BOTH THE 24″ GUIDWIFE AND 20″ LARBERT IN OCTOBER 2015
Here we have a fantastic example of a “Carron Dover” stove that is now available for sale in the shop.
Here we have another Belle Portable for sale. Fully restored and awaiting it’s new home!
Here is a little “Nipper” that came in this week for restoration. It is having a new top plate and new flue box as well as the more general restoration work. The cream mottled enamel is in pretty good order and will be kept. This is a very nice example of a rare sought after stove and it was found at a car boot sale for £25 would you beleive!
Don’t forget O.J.Osborne & Co manufacture brand new “Nipper” stoves and they are available for £1500 in black lead finish. Enamelled finish is also available but please get in touch for a quote.
Here is a very nice Torwood Dover complete with brass fiddle rail and polished name plate. I have more of this type and similar in stock so visit the ‘Contact’ page above if you are interested.
I managed to find the time to finish off the patterns for the fiddle rail standards yesterday. Next job is to get them up the foundry for the first few batches to be cast!
On the left here you can see an original fiddle rail standard from the back cabin stove of the working narrowboat ‘Dane’ dating from 1909. These rail standards were used on a huge number of working boats throughout the 19th and 20th century. On the right is the first split pattern turned from beech by Charlie Watts, a very talented Somerset based wood turner. These more to come and then we’ll be into casting the first batches of these standards for our replica Guidwife and Larbert back cabin stoves.
If you’d like to get in touch with Charlie please visit his website here; http://www.wattsturning.co.uk/
