A RANGE cooker company with its head office near Dursley is celebrating its 45th birthday.

The first Everhot cooker was invented in 1979 by engineer Ossie Goring.

It was designed to run on a trickle feed of electricity produced by the water turbine at Coaley Mill, where the Everhot showroom and head office remains today.

Ossie was concerned about the amount of energy being used by his heat storage cooker.

He decided to create an electric range cooker that could run off a water turbine that he had installed.

Some years and many prototypes later, he had perfected a trickle-feed design which enabled his new cooker to receive power from a small intermittent flow of electricity.

Ossie’s development allowed the first Everhot to run off not only his water turbine, but also a standard 13-amp plug.

In 1999, Ossie’s son Guy launched Everhot Cookers Limited.

Three miles up the river from Coaley Mill, all of Everhot’s heat storage range cookers and electric stoves are designed and hand-built in a carbon-negative factory.

“We realised years ago that accidentally, as a result of the water and solar power, heat pumps and tree planting here, we had always been a carbon-negative company, and therefore the logical decision was to maintain that status as we grew,” Guy said.

“We know that our owners share our affection for the environment.

“More and more are pairing their Everhot cooker with solar panel installations, benefitting from a cost and energy saving.

“My father designed our range cookers with efficiency in mind, and we haven’t, and won’t, be deterred from this focus.”