Osborne Restoration

Category: Torwood foundary

See ‘Jones and Campbell’ and ‘Belle Portable’

  • Belle Portable nearing completion

    I’ve nearly finished this nice little Belle Portable. There’s still a few small jobs to do but its quite a different story to how it looked just last week! (photo 2)

  • Another Belle Portable range in for restoration

    This range is fairly typical of the kind that come here for restoration. On the outside they look tired and tatty but in reasonable order but inside they are a mess. It is for this reason that I am so diligent with my restorations as a range that appears to be in fair aesthetic condition could (and probably is) in very poor working condition. It’s sometimes easy to forget that these ranges are 100+ years old and for much of that time they may have had a coal fire inn them for 12hrs of the day!

  • Keith’s Belle Portable

    I just received an email from Keith, the chap who purchased the Belle Portable with fiddle rail and hot closet. It looks great in its new home and I’m over the moon that the fires lit and the ovens full!

  • Belle Portable restoration

    When this Belle Portable came in I was pretty shocked. There was barely a bit on it that wasn’t broken and many of the parts like the top plate and front panel had bits missing and had been broken in several places. The front plate for example had seven separate repairs! One of the cast iron side panels was also missing so a new one had to be cast. The deeper I dug the more problems I came across, it certainly proved to be a real challenge.
    The range is now back at home with its owner and being prepared to install. Here’s a ‘before’ and ‘after’ of the range as it arrived to me and moments before it left the workshop.

  • Belle Portable with Fiddle rail and hot closet

    I’m busy as ever down here, this time with a lovely little 26″ Belle Portable with twisted brass fiddle rail and hot closet. It’s nearly finished now, I’m just waiting for for a few parts to arrive for it and I reckon its taking shape nicely!

  • Bungalow Belle

    The Bungalow Belle with boiler went a while ago but I haven’t until now had a chance to post a picture. Here it is before being packaged up.

  • New (old) ranges in stock!

    I’ve had a few deliveries over the last week and here’s the result, you guessed it- ranges!

    I tend to try and get my hand on anything cast by the Caledonian Stove and Iron Works so when this beautifully deco ‘Dover’ range came up I had to have it!

    Secondly a very smart 26″ Belle Portable with removable oven. These narrower ranges are increasingly hard to come by especially in this condition!

    Next is a very nice but fairly rusty Larbert 410114 30″ range, these are very pretty with their strap hinges and curve top oven doors. The firebox drop doors that are always missing will be replaced in the restoration with new ones that I have had cast in England from high quality grey iron.

    Finally, here is something really special! It’s a very nice little 24″ model, the kind of stove that can be found in narrowboat back cabins but can also slip into many standard chimney openings. It’s had a hard old life but we’ll get him ship shape again before long!

  • “New Clanic” 36″ Belle Portable range with sham

    I have recently got in a “New Clanic” Belle Portable range with sham. It is in very good shape and will be in for restoration next week. At present it is a pile of bits in the workshop so I can’t show folk any actual photo’s but here is an original advertisement of a Nichols & Clarke Ltd catalogue.

  • Poorly Belle Portable

    I received another Belle portable for restoration today and it really is in a poor state of repair. In fact I can’t remember if this might be the most poorly one I have been asked to repair. Much of the damage isn’t visible from the photo but it seems to have had all manner of bumps, dings, knocks and cracks over the years. Not to mention its lost one of its sides somewhere along the line!

  • 1894 Belle Portable with water boiler

    I’ve not had a chance to post much recently as I’ve been extremely busy in the workshop but here’s a particualy nice Belle Portable that came in for restoration recently and is now back with its owner after some extensive work. It’s an early model Belle with cast iron water boiler. It dates from around 1894 and must have had some serious use over its life as the firebox was quite a state!
    The base plate had two large cracks in it, all the firebox cheeks were damaged and one required renewal, the firebox door was missing as was the pintle, there was no tap for the boiler, the back and sides were rotten as was the oven… you get the idea!