The old wood burning Raburn was replaced by an oil fired Esse, which also provided hot water for the kitchen. We had the brickwork in the fireplace redone in a herring style.

At first, the Esse was successful and worked well. After a few years, when the formulation of the oil was changed, it became a disaster. It constantly sooted up. This appeared to be a general problem with this type of vaporizing oil cooker after the amount of sulphur allowed in the oil was reduced. We eventually scrapped the cooker after an unhelpful suggestion of an unguaranteed upgrade to the cooker for over £700 that may or may not get it working. It has been replaced with a wood fire.