I've got nice looking imitation real fire powered by gas.

I fancy something a little more real, would it be cheaper to run than a gas one- use broken pallets etc to fuel it?

Can I just get my gas one un-installed by an engineer then put in a grate fairly cheaply?

Any advice welcome.

depends what you have got. was there ever a real fire there? if not then teh gas flue you have now will definitely need to be lined. if so then a chimney sweep will tell you if teh chimney you have is any good, and if it leaks fumes. lots of stuff on here about woodburners and the like. if you want one to fit into a 'standard builder's aperture' – ie a modern fireplace built for a gas fire, then you can get 'em, thougfh they are reasonably pricey things by themselves. can be quite a bit of work, and therefore money, to get fully fitted, so bear all this in mind if it's a money saving exercise. it may take quite some time to pay off.
we have a stovax. love it.

one like this, but plain black slate surround and hearth:

I'm prety sure it was once a real fire, it's a 1920's semi so I'd assume that it had an open fire when it was built. Bizarly it had a sweep's equipment in the cellar too.

The current fie place is a mock vinatge set up that fit's into a builder's aperture.

use broken pallets etc to fuel it

Seriously – pallets would burn way too quickly – you wouldn't need the fire burning as you would warm yourself up enough with the constant getting up to add more wood to the fire 🙂

I'm a scout leader 🙄 cue predictable jokes.

So I have a pretty regular access to conventional fire wood too c.o some woodland that we own and also have a mate who's a tree surgeon.

I'm also looking to do this next year sometime – but don't have the gas fireplace there any more (been ripped out) – so just got an old fireplace\hearth\grate etc, all of which are very out-dated and look horrible. Is there a guide to explain what bits of a fireplace are what, as I'm struggling to understand the difference between surround, backplate, hearth, mantel, fireplace, etc etc (I basically want to replace everything with something newish and minimalistish, to put big logs on to warm up)