Page 3 of 4
Fred produced what was probably the first convector fire in
1977 built around a 24-inch log box with the convector
wrapped around the flue. The heat projected out of a
separate opening in the brickwork above the fire, which was
fronted with specially designed heatproof glass from
Pilkington. “We couldn’t sell it, though, he says ruefully “It
was a bit ahead of its time.” But Countryfires was going
well employing six people and supplying Woods of Norwich,
the biggest fire company in the country at the time on a
similar level to Grateglow.
“They went on to become a big name, but we didn’t mainly
because I was great at development, but not so good at the
Marketing and promotion.
“Customers used to get annoyed with me because they
wouldn’t know what to expect when they opened the box
as I was constantly changing bits of my design. Also, we
had quite a few distribution problems. Everything went by
rail in those days and if you think the situation is bad now,
you should have seen what it was like in the 70’s. We had
whole carriages lost up sidings with our fires on board as
customers became more and more irate.
Flash in a Pan
But there was no doubting the quality of the Waghorn
creations. Fred’s pioneering work was ceramic plates –
developed with prongs that held the coals at just the right
distance to produce the glow effect – and his ‘element’
burner, which was built along the same lines as an electric
element so gas would be released in the right places to
improve the effectiveness of the fires, was being noticed.
The famous burner manufacturer George Bray of Leeds
(now Bray Burners) approached the Waghorns with a view
to merging Countryfires into their giant operation. At the
time, natural gas was expected to run out after 10 years so
Bray was developing burners to run on synthetic gas and
wanted Fred’s design.
“The funny thing I thought their burners were better than
mine! But it all came to nothing because they paid a market
researcher £1,800, which was a lot of money then and he
told them fuel effect fires were a flash in the pan.”
At the same time, Countryfires was the smallest of the six
Companies then making fuel effect fires in the UK and Fred
Continued to experiment. He created a ‘moving picture’
Fire using reflective paint and dancing flames and a Floating beam fire for British Gas, which incorporated a
huge piece of hemlock.
Fred produced what was probably the first convector fire in
1977 built around a 24-
separate opening in the brickwork above the fire, which was
fronted with specially designed heatproof glass from
Pilkington. “We couldn’t sell it, though, he says ruefully “It
was a bit ahead of its time.” But Countryfires was going
well employing six people and supplying Woods of Norwich,
the biggest fire company in the country at the time on a
similar level to Grateglow.
“They went on to become a big name, but we didn’t mainly
because I was great at development, but not so good at the
Marketing and promotion.
“Customers used to get annoyed with me because they
wouldn’t know what to expect when they opened the box
as I was constantly changing bits of my design. Also, we
had quite a few distribution problems. Everything went by
rail in those days and if you think the situation is bad now,
you should have seen what it was like in the 70’s. We had
whole carriages lost up sidings with our fires on board as
customers became more and more irate.
Flash in a Pan
But there was no doubting the quality of the Waghorn
creations. Fred’s pioneering work was ceramic plates –
developed with prongs that held the coals at just the right
distance to produce the glow effect – and his ‘element’
burner, which was built along the same lines as an electric
element so gas would be released in the right places to
improve the effectiveness of the fires, was being noticed.
The famous burner manufacturer George Bray of Leeds
(now Bray Burners) approached the Waghorns with a view
to merging Countryfires into their giant operation. At the
time, natural gas was expected to run out after 10 years so
Bray was developing burners to run on synthetic gas and
wanted Fred’s design.
“The funny thing I thought their burners were better than
mine! But it all came to nothing because they paid a market
researcher £1,800, which was a lot of money then and he
told them fuel effect fires were a flash in the pan.”
At the same time, Countryfires was the smallest of the six
Companies then making fuel effect fires in the UK and Fred
Continued to experiment. He created a ‘moving picture’
Fire using reflective paint and dancing flames and a Floating beam fire for British Gas, which incorporated a
huge piece of hemlock.
