Bread oven door?

[JanieB]

Elizabeth David wrote a very interesting book on yeast cookery that is more of a history of bread and bread ovens.

[Zebra]

Apologies for my absence from this thread, and not seeing all the replies - I don't frequent these parts like I used to.....

JanieB, that's so interesting that you had freestanding wooden ones too.

In terms of the construction of this opening, and whether it had any flue or not, i was very interested, noj, in your detailed description of yours. I had the whole area apart to repoint and repair, and so I know for sure there's no flue. The dome is beneath a small pitched roof which leans onto the back of the chimney, and it's true it's not mortared. I rendered the outside of the dome with some soft lime plaster just to prevent draughts, and I suppose it's conceivable any smoke from the inside was just intended to escape through the gappy brickwork, but I find it unlikely to have been effective. Besides, there's no soot marks on the inside of the opening, which is untouched. I wonder, would bakers have heated up an object - a stone, a jug of water - and put this inside the opening with the bread rather than have any smoke-producing objects in there? Otherwise, it perhaps was a large salt store.