John Grundy the Cathedral Heating Engineer

Ely Cathedral Heating System

 Here's a Gurney Stove which I remember seeing many years  ago in Ely Cathedral. On a freezing winter's day the Cambridgeshire Fens are a dire place to be, but this stove was managing to keep the cathedral well above freezing by churning out heat to warm the worshippers. I've seen similar stoves in other cathedrals including that at Chester. This huge apparatus, weighing a few tons I should imagine, was designed and patented by a Cornish gentleman with the colourful name of Goldsworthy Gurney. Gurney was a prolific inventor and developed steam engines, lighthouse lamps and steam jets for cleaning sewers. He also came up with the idea of the incandescent calcium light which was a form of stage lighting used in the 19th century known as limelight, actors on stage were thus 'in the limelight' and this phrase then became used to describe the state of being in the centre of public attention.

But you might think back to the title of this post and wonder why I used John Grundy's name and not Gurney's. Well John Grundy was a Lancashire engineer who developed the Gurney heater to a more sophisticated level by combining it with a heat distribution system which circulated air around large indoor spaces such as cathedrals and other public buildings. Even the cathedral in Stanley in the Falklands Islands was heated with a Grundy system. So a true forerunner to some of the warm air central heating we have today, in particular Grundy highlighted the cleanliness of his approach focussing on the 'pure warm air' provided to the congregation.

Prestatyn, December 2022

And how was it that I started to become an expert on 19th century cathedral heating? By looking down at grids of course. I spotted this roadside drain outside our local post office recently and wondered who Grundy was. The Grundy family of Tydesley, Lancashire were the proprietors  of a very successful foundry and ironworks. John Grundy senior was reportedly unhappy about being chilled to the bone during Sunday services in his local chapel that he (perhaps during sermons) devised his warm air plan and persuaded his local preacher to let him install one. The company grew and the family opened premises in London, John Grundy junior prospered and even became the first president of the Institute of Heating and Ventilation Engineers. The company probably produced grids and manhole covers as a sideline before Sunday breakfast.