Victorian Hot house

The Victorian hot house or stove house as it was known was always always a magnificent affair, lined as they were, with row upon row of exotic plants basking in the piped heat during the coldest winters.

The heated pipes provided a very dry heat, which most stove plants were not accustomed to in their natural environment. In order to increase the humidity it was not uncommon for stove houses, like the ones at Winsford, to have open water tanks, which were themselves heated. Young journeyman gardeners were also responsible for throwing water on the hot pipework which would then provide clouds of precious steam. The benches at Winsford were covered in sheets of thick slate and these  facilitated not only general cleanliness but could be damped down as often as required.

The heat for Victorian hot houses came from boilers located underground. Heated water would leave the boiler through the 4" (100mm) 'flow' pipework and rise to the highest point of the heating circuit and the cooled water would run back down to the boiler. The boilers at Winsford were located between 6 and ten feet (1.8m & 2.7m) below ground.

The improvement in boiler design and efficiency throughout the nineteenth century, combined with the repeal of the glass tax in 1845, together with the invention of the float glass process, ensured that construction costs were no longer as prohibitive as they once were and led ultimately to the proliferation of glass houses.

It is all to easy to imagine the gardeners working in Victorian hot houses having a relatively comfortable time, especially during the English winter months. Until you realise that the lifespan of many such gardeners was a short one. The chemical sprays, including arsenic, that Victorian gardeners used to kill the unwanted insect life in their glasshouses, ultimately did for the gardeners themselves.