During the middle of Queen Victoria's reign people started to
have closed cooking ranges to cook on. This was much better than
just boiling a pot on an open fire as people had prior to this
time. But it meant that the range had to be raked out and the
wretched thing had to be black-leaded once a week. I have an old
Victorian cookery book which gives instructions on how to clean
the kitchen range. It says, "Clean out all the cinders and ashes
from the grate. remove the plate-rack, cleaning doors, loose
covers of hotplate, firebars and shelves in front of ovens; pass
the flue brush into flues in back coveplates, working it well up
and down till all soot is loosened and fallen down to the bottom
of flues. Put in the back flue dampers and doors .......with a
hand-brush sweep all soot right or left off the top of the ovens
or side boiler. Push the flue brush down the sides of the
ovens.......working it well about to clean the side flues
thoroughly.......Take the iron raker and draw out all the soot
from the flue b