Osborne Restoration

Category: Belle Portable Ranges

‘Belle Portable’ ranges are the most common of the portable ranges and were in production from the late 19th century to the mid 20th. They were manufactured by Jones and Campbell, of Falkirk at their ‘Torwood foundry’ near by to the ‘Larbert foundry’ of Dobbie Frobes Ltd where Dermont Campbel was once the cashier.

The company was established in 1887 and the first cupola was blown in and tapped in 1888. The first ‘Belle Portable’ design was registered in 1894 and these early examples have several defining characteristics including decorative fretwork on their trivets and rounded ends to the strap hinges on the oven door.
Later ranges had ‘Removable ovens’ with brass screws fixing in the front panel to prevent them seizing. However they are invariably always seized!

‘Belle Portable’ ranges can be found in all sorts of shapes and sizes and have proven themselves to be of a very robust design.

O.J.Osborne & Co manufacture many spare parts for these ranges and always keep unrestored examples in stock. Customers restorations are taken on and can be shipped anywhere in the Uk.

  • Three men in a boat

    Here I am in a freinds boat rowing in the Bristol harbour. Turns out I’m not a natural! We head up towards MShed and then put the sails up for the return leg. I’m no good at that either, beware the boom!

  • We’ve had another busy week with 1 Georgian register grate, 1 Belle Portable, 1 Cottage range and 16 forged shutter closers being completed ready for delivery today.
    The grate and range are being supplied with a pair of matching bespoke Bath stone surrounds and they’ll look great in their new home!
    The Belle Portable has been fully insulated internally to make it’s installation into a Ploughman’s living wagon that much safer.
    The shutter closers work on the principle of snail cam, or more accurately a scroll cam. The scroll catches onto a pintle driven into the window frame and as it is turned draws the shutter tighter in.

  • Belle Portable Range

    I recently aquired this very smart Belle Portable range. It is complete and original and is in the queue for restoration. It’s a very nice example of a 36″ model with sham.

  • A few new ranges

    It’s been a busy week on the ranges front with two new aquisitions and two that arrived to be restored. The new ranges are the early Guifwife portable range below and a Belle portable and the restorations are the cottage open range below and another Belle portable destined to be returned to the ploughmans living wagon from where it came.

  • Interesting goings on in Minehead

    We were down in Minehad last weekend to catch the end of the steam fayre and watch a Currach being launched. The first few photo’s show the turntable recently installed at the station. It is manually operated by just two men!
    The photo’s below are of the Currach built largely by a team volunteers over the course of five days. It is 28ft long and carries seven men. The ribs are of hazel whilst much of the rest is constructed of spruce that was felled from North hill above the town the week previous. Traditonally the hull would have been formed from animal hide but Keval was used here. There has been a lot of support for the project and a lrge crowd gathered at the harbour to see if she sank or swam!

  • Belle portable range in parts

    I just dismantled another Belle portable range ready for restoration and thought some people may be interested to see its various parts. This photo shows everthying minus the oven, trays, oven runners, a couple of hotplates and the hotplate tool. Now to remember how it all goes back together again…

  • Lime kiln in Somerset

    I came across this lime kiln sometime ago but was in the area again today so decided to pop by for another visit. There was originally a bank of three but the two on the flanks of the one pictured have collapsed. This one however is in great condition and looks like it could be fired again with some work. What a great project that would be! Hopefully the land owner will one day acknowledge the value of it sure it up before it goes the way of its brothers.

  • Iron and Copper candle sconce

    Here is an Iron and Copper candle sconce I recently made for a customer. It’s based on a design used on a 18th century German candle stick I saw at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. The scroll forms a leaf spring that holds the candle within the ring facillitating the use of any size candle. The back plate is of polished copper. All rivets are of brass. Apologies for the poor photo!

  • More signwriting at Underfall yard

    Rach has been down at Underfall yard again of late finishing the pilot gigs. The most recent gig to be finished is ‘Young Bristol’ named after its sponsers a youth charity based in Bristol, see here for more details on the organisation;

    http://www.youngbristol.com/

    The photo’s here show the level of craftmanship required for the construction of these gigs. To see them up close is something really special and they were built in Bristol by the guys at Underfall yard.

  • “Bungalow Belle” Portable range nearly back together

    It’s all been very busy here recently and it has taken me this long to get the “Bungalow Belle” blasted, repaired and reassembled. Here is a photo of how it stands at the moment less its vitreous enamel finish. The iron under the enamel was like brand new, having not seen the light of day for nearly a century and it came up really nicely as you can see!