In English homes, the fireplace has always been, until recent times, the natural centre of interest in a room. People may like to sit at a window on a summer day, but for many months of the year they prefer to sit round the fire and watch the dancing flames.
In the Middle Ages the fireplaces were, in the halls of large castles, very wide. Only wood was burnt, and large logs were carted in from the forests, and supported, as they burnt, on metal bars. Such wide fireplaces may still be seen in old inns, and in some of them there are even seats inside the fireplace.
Elizabethan fireplaces often had carved stone or woodwork over the fireplaces, reaching to the ceiling. There were sometimes columns on each side of the fireplace. In the eighteenth century, space was often provided over the fireplace for a painting or mirror.
When coal fires became common, fireplaces became much smaller. Grates (metal frames like baskets) were used to hold the coal. Above the fireplace there was usually a shelf on which there was often a clock, and perhaps framed photographs.
Now coal fires are forbidden and gasheaters are used instead.