Clome oven facts for kids
A clome oven (sometimes called a cloam oven) is a special kind of oven built into a fireplace. It was very common in old kitchens in places like Cornwall and Devon in England. Imagine a big, round oven made of clay or bricks, tucked right into the side of your chimney!
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Clome Ovens: Old-School Kitchen Tech!
What is a Clome Oven?
A clome oven is a type of masonry oven. This means it's built from materials like clay, bricks, or stone. It usually had a door that could be taken off. This door was often made of clay, but sometimes it was made of strong cast-iron.
These ovens were a standard part of many kitchen fireplaces. They were built right into the side of the chimney. You might see a round bump on the outside of the chimney. This bump was the oven, surrounded by extra bricks or stone. This design made it easy to replace the oven if it ever broke. When a clome oven was installed, it was packed with clay. This helped stop the oven from cracking when it got very hot.
How Did People Use Clome Ovens?
Using a clome oven was a bit different from modern ovens. First, you had to get inside the fireplace! Then, you would build a fire right inside the oven itself. People often used dried gorse (a spiky bush) or blackthorn branches to make the fire.
The oven didn't have its own chimney. So, the smoke from the fire would escape through the oven door. It would then go into the main fireplace and up the big chimney. Once the oven was super hot and glowing white, the hot ashes were moved out of the way. Then, the food for baking was put inside. The door was propped up to close the opening.
Clome Ovens Today
Later, new kinds of ovens called cast-iron range cookers became popular. These were like big metal stoves. To make space for these new cookers, people often built a wall in their fireplace. This wall split the fireplace into two parts. One part was for the new cooker, and the other part still allowed access to the old clome oven.
Bricks were often used to build these dividing walls. This was because the new cookers needed a special brick flue (a pipe for smoke) built up the back of the fireplace. Many clome ovens were saved this way. They stayed in their original spot, even as kitchens changed over time.
