The first Everhot cooker, meanwhile, was designed to run from renewable energy in the late 1970s, specifically to replace a solid fuel appliance, and was powered by a water turbine at Everhot’s home, Coaley Mill, in the Cotswolds. It’s always been electric and is still made in Gloucestershire.
Contrary to what I might have expected, Durie says many customers aren’t interested at first in this very British speciality, the range. “There are so many misconceptions with this sort of cooker. People feel it’s a cooker from decades ago.”
While you can still use an Aga in a traditional way, because of the price of fuel – which is on everyone’s minds at the moment – they have had to make it work in a much more conventional manner. Coal, gas and oil are now replaced by electricity and hobs and ovens can be switched on and off and operate independently.
They are, of course, a luxury. I don’t refute the Marie Antoinette label that comes with debating the merits of expensive stoves during a winter when many in the UK will be making a very real choice between heating or eating. A range of course does do both.
Indeed, Spillers has witnessed a boom in people buying ranges in the pandemic. “In my 30 years it’s the busiest we’ve ever been for this sort of kitchen.” He puts it down to the rise in home working: people are suddenly going to town with “this kind of lifestyle”.
And he does consider a range a lifestyle product. The sort where you dry your clothes on them and the pets won’t get out of the way. It’s Jilly Cooper and Jill Archer’s lemon drizzle. It’s at least one university friend of mine, who came home to his halls of residence to find a fire engine outside after he’d put his socks on the hob and gone out, all because he had grown up with an Aga.
Some people lust after fine wine and cars. Others, 406kg of cast iron. “These products are for people who want them to be sinful. If you really want an all singing, all dancing German Miele or Gaggenau, dare I say it, it’s a different type of client.”
I’m here for the hot socks. So let’s get down to baseline figures. An Everhot, Durie tells me, costs less than £15 a week to run if it’s left on continuously. “They’ve always cost less to run than Aga, but give off less heat.”
The new breed of Aga keeps costs low by having the ability to turn parts off when they aren’t needed, meaning some newer models can run from £12 per week. They are also an investment – albeit one that starts at £6,450 and rises to £20,960. An Everhot starts at £5,930 and climbs to £11,750.
Rayburn is part of the Aga group. Durie describes it as a Jack of all trades that can cook but can do your hot water and central heating. You might have had to sit down to take in the price, but insists Durie: “They become cheaper the longer you have it.”
When clients look at Rangemaster cookers and similar products they assume they will cost substantially less. “But most start around £2,500 to £3,000 and they won’t last anywhere near as long as an Aga or similar range.”
I’m aware I’m talking to a salesman of some pedigree but I feel myself salivating as Durie adds: “Once you’ve had it five, 10 years, 20 years, passed it down the generations, then obviously it becomes one of the least expensive things you’ve ever bought.”
So what does he have? “I have an Everhot at home. I’ve got a really contemporary kitchen and the Everhot fits it. Bless them, Aga were horrified when I told them, but it was before they made some of the modernisations.”
There are a lot of options, not least colours; 18 for Everhot and 17 for Aga, but Durie reassures me that you know when you know which one is for you.
I’m relieved I didn’t go down to the showroom in person. Much as one should never go to a dog shelter for a casual browse. I’m not ready to make my investment yet.
Regardless of what happens to my own Aga saga, it’s a super story of British manufacturing. “So much of the top kitchenware today comes from Germany and America, I think it’s fantastic that there are these brilliant British brands,” agrees Durie. “Everhot have kept Aga on their toes: without them, they wouldn’t have evolved as much as they have.”
And I’ve no doubt that when the time comes, I, too, shall do my bit for my country.
