Clome oven

A clome oven (or cloam oven) is a type of masonry oven. It has a removable door made of clay or alternatively a cast-iron door, and was a standard fitting for most kitchen fireplaces in Cornwall and Devon.[1] The oven would be built into the side of the chimney breast, often appearing as a round bulge in the chimney. This bulge consisted of the masonry surrounding the oven, and was intended to be dismantled should the oven ever need to be replaced. During installation, they are surrounded by packed clay to prevent the actual oven cracking.[2]

Clome oven in the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro

A clome oven is used by building a fire inside it after entering the fireplace. Typically, dried gorse or blackthorn is used to ignite the fire. As there is no internal chimney, the smoke exits through the oven door and passes through the main chimney in the adjacent fireplace. When the oven is sufficiently heated, hot ashes are either removed or pushed to the side, and baking is placed inside. The oven door is then propped open for access.

As cast-iron range cookers were brought into common use, it became standard practice to build a dividing wall to split the fireplace into two separate fireplaces, thus allowing access to the clome oven, as well as providing a space of the correct dimensions to fit a Cornish range or similar. Bricks were the most common building material for this task, since the installation of a Cornish range required a brick flue to be built up the back of the fireplace. Many clome ovens were preserved in situ in this way.