coughton_court

COUGHTON COURT
WARWICKSHIRE

Coughton Court has been the home of various generations of the
Thockmorton family for six centuries of history and only became the
property of The National Trust in 1946. The original building of the house
dates from the early 1500's but it has since had many alterations and
additions to its layout.

The original wet heating system appears to date from the
mid-Victorian period which can be determined from the only
item of equipment that remains of this system. It is a very
large and impressive cast iron circular vertical tubular heater
sited at ground floor level in the main staircase.
The heater is still in use.

Unfortunately the heater bears no makers name but has a striking resemblance to a similar style of heater made by Vincent Skinner at their Bristol ironfoundry.

The flow and return pipework to the base of the heater is routed through underfloor ducts below the flagstone floors.

Another wet heating system was installed later during the Edwardian period. This fact can be established from the wrought iron pattern pipework fittings and stirrup brackets that have been used with the mild steel pipework.

The method for connecting sections of pipework uses a preponderance of backnut joints at sockets and most unusually at 90 degree bends and also return bends. This style of jointing pre-dates the introduction of unions for joining sections of pipework together.

A most unusual pipework connection arrangement for a sectional cast iron
radiator, never seen before, was found on two radiators fitted in the front hall.
The end section of the two radiators has been cast with the flow and return
pipework connections sited vertically above each other approx 100mm apart.
Further research found that these were Royal School pattern radiators
manufacturered by The Beeston Boiler Co. This connections arrangement
could be provided to special order for the price of 3/-.

The small Roman Catholic church sited at the entrance to the Coughton estate
was found to have its original solid fuel fired G N Haden & Sons Ltd warm air
stove furnace still fitted in the basement. This stove is a size 2 which provided
warm air heating to the church through several cast iron floor gratings in the aisles.

Research carried out in the Haden Archive held at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre in Chippenham showed in the original Order Book for that time period that the stove was a size No 2 and given the number 3832 with an entry date of 14th October 1874. Every Haden stove installed was given its own unique number.

NOVEMBER 2007