Chapel of St Antony's Cowley Exeter  Devon

St Antony's a Chapel of Ease, and a Grade II Listed building originally in the Parish of Newton St Cyres, now Upton Pyne dates from 1867/68. Since 2011 it has ceased to be used as a place of worship. It has a strong connection to Tyntesfield House the National Trust property, as the main benefactor for the Chapel was William Gibbs whose family were the owners of the Tyntesfield estate. Sited in a brickwork floor pit in the main aisle is a warm air stove. It can be assumed that this stove dates from 1868 and most likely installed during the construction of the Chapel. The cast iron stove which has the makers name Rosser and Russell Fleet Street London has been cast with a series of metal fins that greatly enlarged its hot surface area which increased the transfer of the heated warmed air up into the Chapel. More information about this firm can be found by visiting the website, http://www.hevac-heritage.org/electronic_books/rosser_&_russell/ rosser_&_russell.htm

View of Aisle towards the Chancel showing the floor gratings covering the floor pit and stove	View into floor pit showing rear end of stove with vertical fins
View into pit showing firing door and brickwork facia. Note cast iron pipework at top of chamber	View looking along top finned length of stove. Note cast iron pipework on right hand side.
Inscription on clean out door Rosser and Russell Engineers 118 Dorset St Fleet St London	Front view of warm air stove showing firing and ash clean out openings

 


It can be assumed that the heating output from the warm air stove proved inadequate
to heat the Chapel and required a wet heating system to be installed some time later
probably during the 1880's in the Victorian period.
The heating system comprises four box-ended pipecoil heaters installed around the
Chapel, fed by cast iron pipework with the exception of mild steel to the Vestry heater.
The heaters were made by 'Garton & King Manufacturers Exeter'.
More information about the Garton & King firm can be found by visiting their
website at http://www,exeterfoundry.org.uk

Heater in Chancel	Heater in Vestry
Heater at rear on Nave	Heater at entrance door

 
  Each of the four heaters has a different height and number of tubes. The construction of the
 heaters is cast iron with their tubes bolted to the box-end headers with gaskets and tie bars.
An unusual feature of the heaters is the removable 'top hat' placed on the top of each header.
None of he heaters or cast iron pipework has been painted.



Downward view of the Chancel box ended heater showing the three rows of pipes
six tubes high. Note the air cock on the top of the right hand box end header.




Another unusual feature of the heating system was the creation of a
  natural convector heater in the Nave at the rear of the church. This
comprised a timber boxing with lift-up lid covering four directional slats.
 A double cast iron heating pipe coil was routed through at low level.

The pipework distribution is a gravity flow & return system with three circuits serving the four heaters. No cold feed or open vent pipe connections could be found fitted to the system, so how the pipework was initially filled is open to conjecture. A manual air vent is fitted to the top of each heater on one header. A possible filling method could have been through a fill pipe fitted at the boiler position. This pipe would also have acted as an expansion pipe as the water was heated and expanded. There is no mains water supply connection into the building. A slate rainwater collection tank was sited outside the Vestry, but this was removed several years ago.

Cast iron double set flow & return pipes connecting to heater at entrance door

View of flow & return pipes where entering external wall

One of the pipework circuits is routed out through the external wall.
  Checking for evidence of the pipework outside the Chapel shows no
continuation of any pipework or boiler plant. As the heating system
worked with gravity circulation the boiler would have needed to be
 sited below the pipework and heaters most likely in a pit outside
 the Chapel building to create sufficient circulating pressure.

A section of new stonework and grouting can be seen just above grass level below the window cill. This is possibly where the pipework came through the wall to connect to the boiler plant. The corner section of stonework could be the position of the original stove/boiler flue. It is possible that the pit with the boiler was simply filled in with soil and rubbish when the heating system was no longer used.