A heating appliance which burns solid fuel has a bottom feed to a furnace vessel (24) conveniently by means of an auger (28). The furnace vessel (24) is arranged to be driven in rotation through gearing (56,57) which assists keeping a uniformly distributed fire in the furnace vessel, and makes possible the discharge of ash overflowing from the top of the vessel through an airlock system (64 to 71). A water jacket (56) surrounds the furnace vessel and a poker (102) is moved in the furnace vessel as it rotates. Combustion air can be blown or sucked in by a fan (62). The heating appliance can take the form of a domestic cooker with ovens (14,16) and also heating water (122) for central heating.