To see the seven minute video “The Old Black Lead Range” by Peter Brears click on Youtube HERE
The Yorkshire Range, popular in English kitchens since the 1850s, was an ‘open range’. The fire box in the center could roast meat hung in front, and heat water in the adjoining boiler. The oven on the other side was circled by a flue containing some heat from the fire on its way up to the chimney. The metal plate on top was hottest over the oven, thus used to boil vegetables and further away the temperature decreased and plated could be warmed on the top. Less coal or charcoal was needed when using a range than a hearth.
Brears, the former Director of the Leeds City Museum, has written many books on dining, cooking apparatus and recipes, including his most recent Cooking and Dining in Medieval England. The photograph above is a Kitchener range made by Walker (of York) and is on display in the Castle Museum of York.
British Heritage Museums collection - Ranges
CA Riverside Museum Beebe Range No. 2, James & Kirtland
