The Battle of Nick versus "The Rock"

The beautiful marble fireplace has been through a bit of change in its time, so the battle was on to restore it to its former elegance.

ROUND ONE: Removing the modern gas fire

Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of soot behind, and the remains of one recently deceased pigeon. We had hoped to see the original cast iron fireplace, but sadly all that remained was one shard of cast iron. In it's place stood a 1930s fireplace. Miraculously the marble surround had survived the smashing out of cast iron and the squeezing in of concrete and tiles.

ROUND TWO: Smashing the 30s out

It took two attempts to remove this part of the fireplace, the concrete was solidly fixed in with metal ties, and we were concerned about dislodging something structural. After taking advice from Mark Cotton, a local stone mason, the fight was on to remove the remaining bricks and concrete. 

Armed with a lump hammer, chisel and the "jemmy wedger", Nick smashed through the remaining rubble , and triumphed as the hole was revealed!

Minor damage to the marble, from the 30s

Brick arch

Ready for the next stage

The construction of the hole has been made with a mixture of stone on the sides and brick on the back wall. The brick arch can just be seen  hanging below the front of the mantlepiece, so we will need a slate lip to conceal it.

Victory! One very satisfied sooty surf dude

"ROCK" was scrawled on the back

ROUND THREE: Warmth at last!

With the hole prepared, Mark laid a black shiny slate over the old slate hearth and added slate slips to the marble surround. He then rendered the inside walls which we painted with a very dark purple using Farrow & Ball's colour Pelt. 

Our builder, Lee Williams, installed the Charnwood wood burner, and at last we have a very warm living room.