The History of the Boiler and Central Heating

Central heating isn’t a modern idea — the Romans piped warm air under floors via the hypocaust system nearly two thousand years ago. But the boiler as we’d recognise it, a sealed unit heating water for radiators, is a much more recent British and European story, and one that’s changed enormously even within living memory.

From coal-fired ranges to gas

Through the first half of the 20th century, British homes typically relied on solid-fuel ranges or standalone gas water heaters, with central heating remaining a comparative luxury. That began to shift after the Second World War, as gas and later North Sea gas supply became more widely available and central heating installation grew rapidly through the 1960s and 70s.

Two heritage names

Baxi’s history in heating stretches back extraordinarily far for the industry — the company traces its roots to 1866, founded by Richard Baxendale in Preston, Lancashire, originally in cast-iron and grate manufacturing long before gas boilers existed. Worcester Bosch’s story starts almost a century later: Worcester Engineering Co. Ltd was founded in Worcester in 1962 by Cecil Duckworth, initially manufacturing oil-fired boilers, before gas heating overtook oil as the dominant technology through the 1970s.

The arrival of the combi boiler

The combination boiler — heating both central heating water and hot taps on demand from a single unit, with no separate hot water cylinder — is generally credited to German manufacturer Vaillant in the early 1960s, with French firm Chaffoteaux following shortly after. It reached the UK by the late 1960s but took time to catch on, since British homes were traditionally built around open-vented systems with a stored hot water cylinder. Worcester introduced its own Combi Boiler in the early 1970s, expanding its Diglis factory in 1973 to meet demand. It wasn’t until the 1980s that combi boilers began winning over British homeowners in large numbers.

Where we are now

Bosch acquired Worcester in the early-to-mid 1990s, forming Worcester Bosch as it’s known today. Combi boilers now account for the large majority of new UK boiler installations, prized for their compact size and the fact they only heat water on demand rather than keeping a full cylinder hot around the clock.