For the love of Aga

Having been in the wars myself somewhat, I was interested to how our beloved Aga's ancestors were born.

Gustaf Dalén was the man responsible and not a stranger to the odd accident. Following some tinkering with his latest invention, he lost his sight after an explosion while developing a porous substrate for storing gases. Consequently he was forced to stay at home,and during convelescence, like all good husbands, discovered how much his wife actually did around the house and that she was exhausted by the amount of time she spent preparing for and actually doing the cooking - nothing new there... However like most good husbands he set about to rectify this and despite being blind, he set out to develop a new stove that was capable of a range of culinary techniques and easy to use. Adopting the principle of heat storage, he combined a heat source, two large hotplates and two ovens into one unit: the AGA Cooker. The cooker was introduced to England in 1929, and its popularity in certain parts of English society (owners of medium to large country houses) led to the coining of the term "AGA Saga" in the 1990s, referring to a genre of fiction set amongst stereotypical upper-middle-class society.

Aga cookers can also make a contribution to space heating, although it is not true that they can heat an entire house, despite persistent claims to the contrary, presumably arising because the cookers look similar to the many types of central-heating range such as the 'Stanley' or the 'Rayburn' Range, also made by the AGA Rangemaster Group.

It's true to say you either love or hate the Aga and sometimes all at the same time!! It can take time to love, there can be moments of joy equalled with moments of shear dispair, confusion and even horror! But like all relationships, it's worth the hard work and perserverance and eventually through some luck and a lot of comittment something special can be born.

a bit of understanding and a great deal of patience something unique and special can be born.