[Growster...]

Mrs Growster and I. over the years, have lived in several houses equipped with a small Rayburn.

Mum and Dad had one soon after I was born, and we got rid of our last one here - a Regent, about eighteen years ago, because it was just not doing the job it might have done previously, when everything was new, efficient and dandy.

What we could never do on any of them, was cook anything like a full meal, let alone get it hot enough to do much justice even to a kettle, and we wonder how Mum managed to do all that roasting and boiling for four of us!

Our last one was OK for - say - porridge, overnight, and was a great source of warmth, but how on earth it was regulated to cook, and how Mum managed to time everything on a Sunday was a marvel in itself!

What are they like these days? Ours were all coke or coal fired!

[jambop]

I have a wood fired Godin Petite Chatelaine and it is blooming fantastic turns out 10.5kW if pushed to the max but we can cook anything on it. The only problem... because we have a low well insulated ceiling the kitchen get very hot if you push it  for stir fry cooking. In the winter months when it is cold we have the stove on and the heat is just so nice great to come home from a walk and into a house nice and toasty. In the living room we have another wood fired room heater a Harmony III ooofft it has the house roasting in any cold weather. Wood fired stoves are the biz and no mistake.