It's said that there is no smoke without fire, but we have been testing this theory literally.
For B&B guests we provide an open fire in autumn and winter. As well as setting the right ambience for a relaxing farmhouse breakfast, a roaring fire is a good source of heat on chilly winter mornings.
Unfortunately, we have had a problem with leaky flues. The smoke draws well from the fires and up the chimneys, but while we were serving guests their breakfasts, smoke was slowly filtering from the chimney breast and into the bedroom above.
Returning to their room, guests didn't mind the lingering smell of applewood but did, understandably, become slightly alarmed by the residual smog in their sleeping accommodation.
Noxious gases were certainly a high concern, so experts were called in. The chimney engineers arrived with ladders, black kit bags, television monitors, rods and brushes, and set about testing the chimneys with a video camera.
It was strangely compulsive viewing, but once it was established that we didn't have any small boys or Father Christmases wedged in, the next stage was to use a smoke test.
This involved using a smoke pellet and watching in the rooms above for signs of the leak. Soon there was a revolting smell reminiscent of stink bombs. I glanced around the room to see who might have caused it, but the chimney engineer rapidly explained that the malodorous smell was deliberate. It enabled them to use vision and smell to detect the smoke.
The engineers concluded that our lovely Georgian house was suffering from porous flues caused by deterioration of the masonry. The answer was to put the chimneys through a process called reaming, which is a chimney's equivalent of a colonic irrigation, followed by lining the chimneys with concrete to fill in any holes.
Unfortunately, during the process the brushes got themselves wedged. At one time we had the farm staff on the roof trying to push out the brush with welded bits of steel. In the end we had to break into the chimney from inside the guest room to physically remove the brushes, re-brick the hole, plaster and redecorate.
After all that effort, we lit the fire in eager anticipation of returning to the fire's warm and homely appeal, and guess what the bedroom filled up with smoke - investigation continues.
Smoking fires was a consideration when looking at fire risks to comply with recent legislation.
Having initially thought a review and remedies for any weaknesses would suffice, it appears that we could all be subject to an inspection and advised on fire alarms, hard-wired smoke detectors, self-closing doors and other equipment.
For people in beautiful, often listed, farmhouses it will be a costly and bitter pill to swallow. I guess we should have known that there would be no smoke without fire - just like in Room 3 at the moment.