On Mon, 04 Mar 2019 18:47:43 -0000, Clare Snyder wrote:

On Mon, 4 Mar 2019 16:06:07 +0000, Rob Morley
wrote:

On Mon, 04 Mar 2019 15:45:10 -0000
"Commander Kinsey" wrote:

I came across a shed today, 8x6m, brick built, with a slate roof, and
a chimney! Not a boiler or wood burning stove type thing, but a
traditional brick chimney. Any idea as to why someone would do
that? It was seperate from the house, by a distance of about 8m.

That was where they heated the water in a big tub called a copper to do
the laundry. As recently as the 1920s, apparently, as a house I lived in
had one, and my mum remembered using one. When washing machines and
domestic hot water arrived the coppers were removed but the chimneys
remained.
around here years back there would often be a "summer kitchen"
detatched from the house. Or it could have been a shop with a forge -
or a bakery - or a butcher shop with a smoke-house - 8X6 meters is a
pretty good sized out-building - almost the size of my house - - -

I have made an error, I meant 8x6 feet! We use feet and metres in the UK....
This is why I was confused as to them having a fireplace in such a small building.