Restoration of the range

The range before restoration

The Victorian cast iron range or the Yorkshire Range to give it its correct name was already in place when we moved into the cottage. It was always our intention to bring it back to as close to an original as we could.

We identified the areas of the range which needed attention and after much research found only three places in the country specialising in cast iron ranges. As you can imagine spare parts for a 1850 range are few and far between.

We found a local blacksmith who made a new front grill, we replaced the fire bricks and raised the height of the fire grate. We needed to find two oven trays and shelf, these were sourced from two other different companies in the south of England.

These are the areas which needed restoring.

new front grill and raise the grate

replace the bricks

source oven trays & shelf

replace the water tank lid

Replacing the fire bricks

Some of fire bricks were deteriorating due to the heat and had to be replaced. They were all removed and new ones were carefully installed using fire cement between the joints.

At this point we took the opportunity to raise the height of the fire grate by creating a ledge on each side for the grate to sit on.

This brought the grate back to its original position, with the fire now higher this now allows the oven to reach a temperature of 160 to 200 degrees centigrade.

The new front grill

The front bars being made at the blacksmiths workshop and then bolted onto the front of the range. The front bars were made from solid steel which worked out cheaper than having new ones specially made from cast iron.

We found an oven shelf or trivet which it is sometimes called and two oven trays from two sources. They were sent of to be sandblasted to remove all traces of rust and given a coat of black iron paste to finish them off.

Oven shelf

The oven trays

After restoration

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse