IT’S NOT JUST ANY OLD IRON!
One bought 80 years ago wins contest to find Britain’s oldest
CLEANING firm manager ChrisWest claims to have the country’s oldest working iron – which is still going flat out after 80 years.
Chris’s grandmother Ivy Sutton bought the Morphy Richards Senior appliance in the early 1940s for 41 shillings – around £35 today.
She gave it to Chris in its box as a house-warming present when he moved into his first flat in the 1980s.
It has worked flawlessly and Chris, 56, of Petts Wood, south-east London, still uses it. So he entered an online competition to find the country’s oldest working iron and was stunned to discover he had won.
He said: “It’s great that it’s still in the family after all these years. It’s a strange coincidence that I live very close to where the Morphy Richards factory was in Orpington too.
“This is the first online completion I have ever entered, and I’m thrilled.”
Chris, who works as a manager for a cleaning and hygiene supplier, said his old iron still outperforms its modern equivalents and has never needed any repairs.
He added: “It goes far hotter than the modern irons. It has a very hot setting that does linen especially far better than the newer ones. When I
‘It goes far hotter than the modern ones and does linen especially far better’
need to use it, it does the job brilliantly. It is very well built and much heavier as well.
“It is only a tiny little thing but is very heavy. We were trying to work out the exact date my nan bought it. My mum can definitely remember her having it in the 1950s.
“It’s proved pretty good value over all these years. I haven’t had to do any repairs on it and I’ve never had any problems. The only thing I did was fit a more modern plug.
“I have two other irons but I still use this one when the time is right for it.”
He said his parents Pam, 81, and Brian, 82, were chuffed with the win. Chris added: “I also genuinely like the look. It is very retro with old style colours, a muted green they had on motor cars at that point.
“It is not something I would ever give away.
“My grandmother passed away in 2000 but she would be pleased as well that I have looked after it and it has come to some attention.”
The competition was run by Morphy Richards. Spokesman Andreas Fredriksson said: “Our ethos of creating reliable products lives on.”