Some wonderful pictures below, a fine example of how Blake & Bull never shirk a challenge! As you'll see it is an early Deluxe model cooker. That means it was made and installed between 1956 and 1972. Originally solid fuel it was one of the first wave of 'modern' Agas that replaced the Standard model that had been sold since 1941. I've had a dig through my collection of Aga cooker ephemera and found the actual advert that introduced this exact cooker colour and style in 1956!
Here is how the cooker in the ad, installed and then never modified in any way, looked in May 2024. Still in daily use, still fabulous. Is there ANY other appliance you could say the same of?
This cooker is to be restored and deep cleaned, not re-enamelled though, and converted to electricity. After nearly 70 years in action she needs a bit of attention! First we dismantle the cooker down to the ground. You can see the effects of age a bit more clearly in this photo!
The plate in the wall is a beautiful enamelled access panel for the flue. We rescue these and re-enamel them. Very rare to see now so we treasure them! Visible is the air supply pipe and also the water boiler to the left of the barrel!
I'm very impressed by this final picture, even as a veteran of so many Aga cookers and years at Blake & Bull.
Re-enamelling would work of course on this cooker, thats is exactly what we have done in
our showroom (see below) and it is stunning. That said there is a sensitivity to the final job here. It keeps the history of the cooker, maintains its patina and tells a story.
"I am really pleased with restoration and conversion of my AGA and I am so grateful to Dan and his team for doing such an amazing job on what turned out to be such a challenging project. I was most impressed with the efficiency with which Dan handled everything and kept me informed of what had to be done.
Thank you all so much for doing such a fantastic job." Virginia P, May 2024
As an original solid fuel cooker this has been converted to the Electrickit electric system. You can see the control panel sits neatly inside the control door. A digital display shows the current top oven temp. Pressing the up/down arrows with temporarily show the target (set) temperature before it reverts to showing the current temp. The lower oven follows the top (at roasting temp its about 60 degrees cooler creating a standard simmering oven). That lower oven though can be 'boosted' to roasting temperature using the lowest of the 3 control knobs, setting it to 7 gives you a second roasting oven for as long as you need it!
The two knobs at top of control panel control the hotplate temperatures. Set them to 8 and they will reach max temperature of 350 degrees in 19 minutes, useful (stuff will sizzle!) from about 8 mins. Super speedy!
