Old Ovens in West Cornwall | The Penwith Papers | Penwith Local History Group

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Old Ovens in West Cornwall

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Old Ovens in West Cornwall

Many old houses in the far west of Cornwall once had large open hearths but the ovens in the wall beside them were often blocked up and forgotten. The drawing of one in the old Zennor Wayside Museum shows the hole for the oven in the wall above the bench on the left (figure 1). These ovens date from the early seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century.

Figure 1. Open hearth in Zennor Wayside Museum. The hole for the oven is above the bench on the left. Drawing by E. J. Wigley in Wigley and Dudley (1959).

A recently-discovered old oven has inspired this article. Figure 2 shows the hole for the oven in the left wall of the hearth and figure 3 shows the position of the oven. Figures 4 and 5 give more details and figure 6 shows the beautifully constructed circular oven with its domed ceiling.

Figure 2. The recently-discovered oven is in the left wall of the hearth.

Figure 3. Oven with a fire in place.

Figure 4. The rod is four feet long showing that the oven is three feet deep.

Figure 5. The oven in the side of the hearth, at waist level.

Figure 6. The oven is circular, and has a domed roof.

Ruth Goodman in How to be a Tudor, mentions ovens in Devon, but not in Cornwall. She has cooked in historical ovens and reconstructed ones, and writes that a reconstructed one that goes wrong is a useful learning aid as it highlights the technical skills needed for the originals. The size and shape of the oven with its domed roof is critical. A small fire is started in the centre of the floor (figure 7) and then fed with dry twigs and small pieces of wood. Very little smoke is seen. Keep feeding the fire with wood. The flames change as the temperature rises. They rise in a column until they are large enough to reach the domed ceiling (figure 8), and then spread out in all directions and curl back down to the floor. The fire reaches its next stage as the exhaust gases are borne back to the centre of the oven and reburnt (figure 9). The spiky yellow tongues turn to clear blue and move in lazy arabesques. Finally, the fire burns down to a hot bed with small blue flames across the floor of the oven.

Figure 7. A small fire with little smoke.

Figure 8. Flames reach the dome and curl back down to the floor.

Fig 9 TBA Figure 9. Roaring fire.

Ruth Goodman found that a good burn took about forty-five minutes in a three-foot diameter oven. Meanwhile, she had the wooden door soaking in a bucket of water. This prevented it from charring when she closed the oven, and added a little steam to the cooking. To test the temperature she suggested throwing a handful of flour at the roof to see if it would spark, but then she learnt to test the heat by holding her hand in front of the oven. When it was it too hot to hold her hand there it was hot enough. She quickly raked the fire out of the oven and then swiftly flicked a damp mop over the oven floor to clean it. She slipped the bread in and sealed the door around the edge with a sausage of flour and water paste. Then there was no time to waste as in forty minutes the next batch of pastries and cakes could go in. An hour after this there was still enough heat for baked custards.

To fit in the ovens, loaves were round, with a smaller knob on top. These were called cottage loaves. The bread was chewier and the crusts thicker than they are today. The bottom crusts were sometimes cut off for servants. The better off people had the upper crusts. For those living in towns bread could be taken to commercial bakers and marked with one’s sign¹.

Cornish ovens were researched by Veronica Chesher in The Cornishman's House and were fired with furze faggots. By the end of the seventeenth century clome ovens (cloam, baked clay) were made in Truro and their use continued into the eighteenth century².

Stoves were not invented until 1735 and not used in Cornwall until coal arrived. Coal was imported in the eighteenth century for the new steam pumping engines used for the mines. Barred grates for burning coal appeared in some parlours. By the nineteenth century, those who could afford it had a Cornish slab, a cast-iron range with brightly polished brass knobs. It was infinitely better for cooking and heating.

Experimental archaeology

In August 2025, with children and grandchildren coming and going, a local family decided to experiment with their newly-discovered oven in the side of a large open hearth. The fire was started with brish, dried furze and heather. Very little smoke was seen. It was then fed continuously with dry twigs and pieces of wood. At the first attempt the oven was not hot enough, and the pizza was finished off in the modern kitchen. On another sunny day they tried again. The dough was covered with a damp cloth and put outside in the sun on the warm earth to rise. This time the wheelbarrow was piled even higher with wood and the fire burnt very hot for an hour. A piece of wood for a door with a really snug fit was soaked in water, the embers were raked to the side, three pizzas were put in and the door was placed in front. Ten minutes later the oven was opened. The pizza at the back was burnt but the other two were eaten. Three more pizzas were hastily put in and timed for ten minutes (as the oven was cooling). They came out just right. Three more pizzas went in for twelve minutes and were shared by the family of nine.

Figure 11. Door in place.