My favorite season Autumn is upon us and we normally have a fire lit most nights in one of our room in Camberwell. We are vigilant in how we prepare the flues and have a list of ‘to do’s’ prior to the Winter months.

The first thing we do is call Willis Chimney Sweeps who are London based to clean our flues who sweep to NACS code of practice. We have our chimneys swept at least twice a year.

If there is a problem with the draw of a fireplace, then we turn to Turner Baker, a family owned company, who are the most amazing flue specialists who resolve problems with draw and leaks, and advise which grate is best to use with the flue.

When Ed goes to clients homes to assist with the flues, he advises us on the final size a chamber can be. It enables us to then work out the best design to use that is the right size and height. If there is a problem with draw, we normally try to use a register grate to close down the chamber like our new Asthall register grate. We also added to the collection this season the Jacob basket and dogs and Harrold grate to the grate collection, all designed from 18th Century originals. We fell in love with the Jacob, George II style grate so much we have installed it into our drawing room of our Camberwell home.

Once the flues are swept then we buy our logs from Barnaby who has the Log Delivery Company. who produce the best kiln dried wood and have plenty of Ash and Birch for the season ahead, sourced from local forestry work in Guildford.

This Winter, in time for Christmas, we are looking forward to selling a wonderful new product ‘Posh kindling’ crackers to start the fire, made by no other than Mrs Posh Kindling in Norfolk. Each box is completely unique and as the materials are finite there a limited edition of one hundred. Each cracker contains dried Eucalyptus leaves & lavender flowers wrapped around a quality firelighter. You simply place a cracker in the grate and lay your fire. The smell is irresistible! They will be in the Pimlico shop from mid-November.

Finally we always use our Rossmore or Stockton firetools in hand-forged steel to stoke the fire once lit. The basic design of fire irons has not changed since the mid-17th Century, with the poker used to break up large lumps of coal and oxygenate logs. The original hand-forged method of manufacture has been employed in the traditional foundry production of both the Rossmore and the Stockton.