OllyOsborne

I remember now! I see so many stoves I sometimes loose track! Perhaps if you could pop me an email with a pic of the stove I can take another look!

Yes that’s the same company. The ‘Larbert’ portable range was their flag ship model. yes the castings are very fine but of exceptional quality. It took some serious knowledge to run iron thin like that whilst retaining strength and shape. The Epping is of crude design and construction by comparison and has very chunky castings. people often assume a quality casting is a heavy one but it’s quite the opposite when it comes to stoves! Belle Portable is a different type of range and manufacturer. Sad to hear it’s been binned, everything is restorable Correct. The deal was that if a merchant purchased X amount of stoves from the manufacturer then they had their own name/brand cast on the smoke box damper. in this case the range is a Belle portable manufactured by Jones & Campbell at their Torwood foundry near Falkirk

Whilst I’m not familiar with the specific model Im 99% sure this is manufactured by Donnie Forbes Ltd at their Larbert foundry. Looks to be 1930s and around 30” wide so yes a bit hefty for a back cabin but great in the main cabin if the boats been converted

Hi Gareth, I’d be very interested to see your stove if you still have it? I was contacted by a Thames sailing barge trust some time ago that was looking for an original stove fitted to the craft they were restoring that was allegedly made in Colchester! No doubt badge engineered but interesting nonetheless

No not all. All ranges work on this premise. The rate of burn is consistent due to the design and can be dampened by both sending the heat around the oven or opening the flap on the smoke box to lessen the draw. I doubt you’d ever get this issue with a stumpy little boat chimney unless you were in some pretty wild storms!

I was just researching back cabin stoves and came across this post. Whilst I appreciate its now very old, as the chap behind Osborne restoration I thought it might be helpful to respond since this thread still comes up in Google searches on the subject. The text on the site is only very simple and designed to give a quick overview of the subject to the uninitiated. It doesn’t represent a detailed history. Re the Diamond, yes of course I am aware of that stove. It was designed specifically for boats (and other moving vechlies/craft) and was marketed as such by the manufacturer Smith & Wellstood. Esse was a trading name/ sister company more geared up to the sale of French style anthracite burning heating stoves despite what the contemporary owners of the name would have you believe. There are of course a litany of other specific stoves that could be mentioned at this time if a list of all suitable stoves is what is required. As for the Diamond I don’t doubt it’s been used in narrow boats but in its standard trim I’d think it would be a bit big as it has an extended hearth and heavy iron fiddle that leans out and so creates a 27” width x 21” depth (from memory) A Guidwife (typically used in buttys as to large for many motors) is 24” x 16.5” for comparison. Re the Stratford. Yes I’m aware it is of the Dover type and am aware they are still made it SA and have been since the works was set up over there by S&W a long time ago. There stoves are not made from the original tolling and have been modified particularly in recent years so aren’t the same as the ‘original stoves’ so I considered them reproduction as they do not belong to the late 19th c or early 20th c. The Epping history is murky but as I understand it it had very limited use on boats and was manufactured by the Broomside foundry at the behest of British Waterways during nationalisation. BW did not want the repair costs of the traditional stoves so had a crude work a day stove made for their boats. It works well but is the result of simplifying and cost cutting and therefore in my opinion does not belong to the boatmans tradition. In the same way that their blue/yellow livery went against the traditions of canal decoration. As for the original patterns this may be the case but I think it very unlikely. I had been told they were cast from loose patterns that may even be original stove parts. I would very much doubt the original patterns would have survived the closure of the foundries in the Falkirk area but I may be wrong there? Re Nippers. Yes I don’t doubt they would have been used but there were many more suitable stoves available that I believe would have been favoured. All the fiddle rails I have seen on both original stoves and in museum collections have been fixed. Usually to the studs that run through the traditional portable ranges and hold them together. I am sure some fiddle rails were removable but I have not come across them so I can only speak from experience. The fiddle rail we manufacture is of a design found on the original stove of the wooden motor boat Dane. The stove was undoubtably original and was of a design specifically designed for boats having several very interesting features. I note the same fiddle rail design is in the museum in Stoke Bruerne. We made up proper green sand patterns and make these in solid brass machined to suit the specific type of rail required. Lastly I’ve not seen a great deal of Premiers (perhaps 5) but I’d have to disagree regarding any improvements. On the contrary there are many elements introduced to the Premier that were not a feature of the Nipper that make them significantly floored. Having not seen a wide enough sample I can’t say wether these were an issue for their full production run or were issues introduced by Midland Chandlers. I’m not wishing to cause offence here I am only referring to my direct experience of having had to restore Premiers in the past that were often in worse nick than a Nipper of 70 years their senior