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How to build the perfect fire to warm your soul

More people are turning to wood to heat their home - delectus
More people are turning to wood to heat their home - delectus

It is a ceremony more apposite for our times than at any moment since the Second World War. There’s the scrunching up of paper, the nestling in of kindling, the laying on of logs and then the striking of the match.

Lighting a fire warms the hearth, the home, the soul and now, apparently, the cockles of your bank manager.

For as families across Britain steel themselves for eye-watering energy bills, one alleviating barricade against the marauding energy giants is the good old-fashioned open fire. And analysis suggests more people are turning to wood to heat their homes, are recommissioning old fireplaces and digging out the number for their local Bert Alfred, their nearest Dick Van Dyke to do his best chim chim cher-oo up their ancient and dusty flue.

Indeed, according to one such chimney-sweep, David Sudworth, who operates in the North West and goes by the name of Mr Soot, business is booming. Sudworth reports that not only is he being commissioned to bring old chimneys back to life but, he says, customers need “advice on how to light a fire.”

Ah yes, of course. Now, when a need to revert to one’s inner cave person is required, for many – those whose only knowledge of heating is to turn on a switch – it’s a skill set that’s missing.

But not me. I have spent my life dwelling and shivering in old houses where the first thing one did on arriving home, even before pouring a drink and checking whether the place had been burgled, was to light a fire.

William Sitwell has always enjoyed a roaring fire - Andrew Crowley
William Sitwell has always enjoyed a roaring fire - Andrew Crowley

In my early childhood we lit fires in a cottage in Oxfordshire, in my teens it was in a large old house in Northamptonshire. Weston Hall, which my family owned until last year, had a fireplace in virtually every habitable room (and there were around 50) including some bathrooms.

Hence the largest outhouse was the log shed. Across the year we would drag to it large fallen branches as well as whole fallen trees. After some chainsaw action they would rest there for several months as large timber roundels before I would set about them with an axe. As I wielded the heavy weapon I would keep up my spirits imagining I was beheading some poor monarch.

Later, as the wood crackled in the fireplace, the burning logs had the same added magic that comes with the taste of home-grown asparagus.

Heaving in logs, being tasked with sweeping the hearth and attempting to light damp logs are memories of Weston. But so is the constant vision of how everyone congregated around the drawing room fire and quite how magnificent it was when the large fire in the hall was lit on more special occasions.

In my current abode off Exmoor in Somerset, there are two ancient inglenook fireplaces, though, alas, rather than reactivate them as fireplaces, I was advised I needed to install wood-burners, albeit ones with wide doors that could be left open and look a bit like a normal fireplace.

I now appreciate both their efficiency and economy. While there was always that magnificent beauty of a vast fireplace, I was aware that quite a lot of the heat generated was going straight up the chimney.

Now, in our new drawing room we – in common with a large number of households in Britain – have a burner that is easy to use and generates great heat.

I’ve learnt a few lessons about using fresh wood. Timber needs at least a season to sit in a dry shed before being chopped into logs and brought into the house. And I’ve done away with paper, kindling or wielding those purring Grenadier fire lighting devices that blow hot air onto wood until it lights.

I use firelighters. And I light a candle to diffuse the whiff of petroleum that comes with the less eco versions, which are, of course, the ones that actually work.

For those out there who are open fire virgins wanting to give it a go this winter, remember you should have some smaller chopped logs at the base of the fire, which are super-dry, will generate good heat and help to set fire to the larger pieces of wood laid on top.

As to resources, I admit we are lucky. We have a place where trees collapse throughout the year so there is a never-ending source of fuel. As a general rule, though, grabbing wood from a random forest in the UK is a no-no, though you could strike a deal with a landowner to help clear their wood, park or back garden of fallen trees.

Then, if you manage to uncover a chimney in your abode, for God’s sake get it swept. Flues that are filled with twigs from nesting birds won’t just smoke out the room, they can catch fire.

When it comes to the fire itself, adding a little coal will help it burn longer and save on wood and if you can get some larger logs, as long as it’s guarded, they can burn all night and get going again in the morning with a poke and the addition of a new log or two.

Then light your fire, sit around it and see how much deeper your conversation can become. I’m hoping to save on my energy bills this winter by stoking the fires and, of course, keeping warm by chopping wood. The only problem is my wife seems to think we should light the fires as warming decorative items AND have the heating on. But only I know where the key to the boiler room is and that thermostat in the hallway she keeps fiddling with? It doesn’t actually work…