Jack Stove

[Morris]

In Tom Chaplin's book Narrow Boats he talks about a Jack Stove being used before ranges were adopted.  I can't seem to find any further information about what such a thing would look like and wondered if anyone here knows what he is referring to?

[dave moore]

I suspect that Tom is referring to a bottle stove, a belly shaped casting with an open front. They preceded the closed door range. I recall them sometimes being used in the small cabins of BCN boats. Hope this helps, I don’t have a photo handy.

[Pluto]

This was the one on the Weaver flat, Daresbury.

[Morris]

Thanks for the replies, interesting that it doesn't even have a flat surface to put a kettle on.  In the book it says 'Although F.M.C. came complete with Jack Stove, the boatman provided his own range'.  The wording seems a little odd but I'm guessing F.M.C. means Fellows, Morton and Clayton boats? If so I'm slightly surprised that someone hasn't wanted to recreate the factory fresh look.  

While I am on the subject of stoves, the book talks about the Guidwife and Hostess ranges, but it seems that in historic boats now the Epping is pretty common. Is this a later type?

[dave moore]

Epping ranges are a modern version, manufactured by Brenmarl Engineering. Owner Pete Dufficy is a friend. I would guess that the bottle stove would be expensive to reproduce and not very popular. I recall towing the Josher butty Vienna from Northwich some years back, that carried a bottle stove in the cabin, not a patch on a range.

[koukouvagia]

1 hour ago, dave moore said:

I suspect that Tom is referring to a bottle stove, a belly shaped casting with an open front. They preceded the closed door range. I recall them sometimes being used in the small cabins of BCN boats. Hope this helps, I don’t have a photo handy.

Am I right in thinking that these bottle stoves were also fitted in the fore cabins of FMC boats?

[David Mack]

55 minutes ago, dave moore said:

Epping ranges are a modern version, manufactured by Brenmarl Engineering. Owner Pete Dufficy is a friend. I would guess that the bottle stove would be expensive to reproduce and not very popular. I recall towing the Josher butty Vienna from Northwich some years back, that carried a bottle stove in the cabin, not a patch on a range.

Is Pete still making Eppings? They seem to be hard to get hold of these days.

[Pluto]

Not a terribly good photo of the cabin on Pluto, but it does show the trivet which hooked on to the firebars so you could cook and boil a kettle.

[alan_fincher]

2 hours ago, Morris said:

While I am on the subject of stoves, the book talks about the Guidwife and Hostess ranges, but it seems that in historic boats now the Epping is pretty common. Is this a later type?

 

The Epping is quite a small stove, but even so is about the largest you can fit into the cabin of a motor boat.

There is typically more width available in a butty, and older traditional types of range like you mention are more likely capable of being squeezed in.

 

Some people eschewed having a range in a moto back cabin, because you can't cook on it on summer without making the cabin stupidly hot.  You could instead put a small gas hob alongside a  Torgem stove, which was only lit when it was cold.

I believe the much missed Trevor Maggs had such an arrangement in Corona.

[magnetman]

I think the "Jack stove" might have been similar to the old Portway burners. 

 

Arctic stoves were a more modern version.

 

Basically a cylinder stove with a cranked flue out the back and quite likely a small diameter flue. 

 

Worth having as they do the job and use less fuel and don't make it uncomfortably hot. 

[Dav and Pen]

Tadworth had a Torgem stove when we brought her from BWB 1973 as all the cooking was done on the butty Bakewell and the drop down table had been removed and a full length door fitted with the cupboard being used for hanging clothes. 

[Mike Tee]

Looking up 'Jack Stove' pointed me to 'stove jack' which is the bit you use in the flue line to exit a wooden cabin or tent - its to stop them catching fire.

Maybe Tom Chaplin meant a bottle stove fitted with a stove jack to stop the roof catching fire.

[Richard Carter]

4 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

 

The Epping is quite a small stove, but even so is about the largest you can fit into the cabin of a motor boat.

There is typically more width available in a butty, and older traditional types of range like you mention are more likely capable of being squeezed in.

 

Some people eschewed having a range in a moto back cabin, because you can't cook on it on summer without making the cabin stupidly hot.  You could instead put a small gas hob alongside a  Torgem stove, which was only lit when it was cold.

I believe the much missed Trevor Maggs had such an arrangement in Corona.

 

The FBS camping boats  - motors Baldock and Coleshill - had a Calor Gas B600 two-burner cooker beside a Torgem, it was an interference fit, with the Torgem (copper enamelled, with mica windows) hard against the table cupboard. Just a tin sheet to disperse the heat a bit, and there might have been an asbestolux board behind that. I think it was quite a "standard arrangement" at the time.

[magnetman]

All of my cooking happens on a Calor B600 when I am on the inner city boat. A truly great cooker. I've had a lot of other units on boats but none of them have ever got anywhere near this in terms of quality. 

[alan_fincher]

3 minutes ago, magnetman said:

All of my cooking happens on a Calor B600 when I am on the inner city boat. A truly great cooker. I've had a lot of other units on boats but none of them have ever got anywhere near this in terms of quality. 

It seems they are fairly readily available at around the £150 mark.

 

I doubt they have flame failure devices on the rings though, so not actually acceptable to the BSS, I assume.

 

That said, neither would the Calor gas cylinder in the back cabin, close to the cooker be BSS compliant!

[magnetman]

The cooker itself is okay if an original install. The gas bottle does want to be outside.

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by magnetman
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[Richard Carter]

1 hour ago, magnetman said:

All of my cooking happens on a Calor B600 when I am on the inner city boat. A truly great cooker. I've had a lot of other units on boats but none of them have ever got anywhere near this in terms of quality. 

 

I'm impressed that you're able to keep one going still! Yes, a good cooker, we had a scary vat of caustic soda to clean the cast iron and enamelled steel parts at the end of the season. I wonder how many of those tinny Flavel replacement models are still around? The Foxton boats did have proper gas lockers by the time I knew them, as they supplied a three burner in the hold for the campers as well. I had a gas light in the back cabin, natch also without flame failure or isolating valve ...

[Morris]

I recently found a couple of pictures of these stoves. Hopefully it's not a problem to reproduce them here. 

 

 

They are both taken from canal arts and crafts by Avril Lansdell.