  Few
fittings, perhaps just fireplaces in the back
kitchen/living rooms, were provided in early Jericho houses and they
probably provided the only means of heating. Later, a
coal-fired range in this room would generally make this still the
only heated room in the house where you cooked and ate food, dried clothes
and kept warm in winter. In the late 19th century houses, more elaborate
marble or enamelled slate fireplaces were fitted, particularly to give a
good impression in the front sitting room, known as the
parlour, which was reserved for special occasions. By the mid 1850s,
houses also sometimes had fireplaces in
the bedrooms as well as the living rooms. The front room fireplace would
only have been lit occasionally for special visitors and, because coal was
relatively expensive, bedrooms with fireplaces were rarely
heated even in the coldest days of winter. |
