This picture shows Clare watching the cooking fire in Hendre, a thatched cruck-frame building first constructed in the Conway valley in around 1508. The Group portray a husbandman family group from around 80 years later and emphasise the central hearth and lack of any chimney, smoke bay or smoke hood.
The opportunity to work over a number of days in such a building provides an insight into the importance of good fire skills. For example the selection of wood being significant in the reduction of smoke - the quality of life can be much pleasanter by using seasoned and de-barked beech; ash or hazel.
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