Stanley Super Star

I have a thing about ranges. In our old house in Warwick we had the original range still in place in the basement. On rare occasions we would light it up and marvel. It took about a day to get going then you had to keep it regularly fed.  It looked magnificent I thought, especially when zebrite and elbow grease were applied. It dated from the late 19C I guess. 
This specimen is a bit newer but the concept is the same - oven, two hot plates and a plate warming although it runs on oil not coal. It's a Waterford Stanley  - the first cast range appeared in the early 1900s, along with a companion cooker called the Livingstone -  obviously used and endorsed by those two intrepid explorers. In 1936 the company moved to Waterford where it's been ever since. Ours is a Stanley Super Star and dates from the 1980s. It has a bit of a history. It originated in Ireland, all funky green, landed up in Bristol where it was discovered about to be thrown out of a house which a friend of ours was doing some work on. Knowing we were looking for one, he brought it back on the ferry for us! A team of very strong men rolled it cursing and sweating into place. It was pretty rusty and bashed about when we acquired it but it did a mighty job of heating the kitchen, and could be called upon to heat the water and sort out the radiators as required.  Bits started to fall off and wobble inside a few years ago and we haven't used it for cooking for ages. Sadly it's no longer very reliable efficiency-wise, rattles like mad and is a bit pongy. . We shall miss it enormously for it has such character and keeps the kitchen toasty. All options re replacing it with something similar have been explored and rejected on price, efficiency, angle of the flue etc!  And they have a massive waiting list. We are looking to replace it with a rather boring boiler.

Thank you for all the love for yesterday's fogbow - I still feel a bit giddy, there must have been something going on in the air!