Story

How It All Started

Hurstead Hardwood Logs grew out of need and necessity. Some thirty years ago we moved into our smallholding and purchased our first wood burning stove at a ridiculous cost. Never mind we thought, we are burning wood, wood is wood, we can burn anything! The end of fuel bills as we saw it!

You can imagine our excitement as we laid our first fire. We did everything by the book. Scrunched up newspaper, two firelighters, we needed to get it off to a good start! Bone dry kindling and newly purchased logs, strategically placed in a pyramid as per the Baden Powell Good Scouting Guide. We lit the paper, it ignited the firelighters, which in turn sparked the kindling into life. I had already taken my jumper off in anticipation of the heat being thrown out from our, quite frankly, ludicrously expensive wood burner.

The kindling burnt away quite quickly and the glass in the door started to go black, we looked at each other. ‘That can’t be right, what have we done wrong?!’ As I opened the door an acrid smelling smoke began to belch out and fill the room. I thought ‘I know what we have done wrong’ and proceeded to fill the stove with more kindling, more firelighters and more paper.

After all the firelighters, kindling and newspaper in the house were used up we were still only left with smouldering logs. This pantomime went on for some time, at which point we came to the conclusion that we would burn anything. Pallet wood, chipboard, old door frames, painted wood and it was all grist to the mill. Until our first chimney fire!!

Then we found a solution – burn seasoned dry hardwood logs!!

Sounds easy but therein lay another problem. What happened when we had burnt it all? My mind was working overtime, how could i conquer this insurmountable problem? Then it hit me – get more wood and season it myself, problem solved.

This was how, after many years of perfecting seasoned wood for our own personal use, Hurstead Hardwood Logs was created. Allowing our customers to enjoy the best quality, hottest and longest burning firewood, just like we do.