In 1803 John Flavel moved his operation to Leamington Spa. Generations of the Flavel family would become civic leaders in the town, while the factory itself became a major local employer. Then in 1833 the mighty Eagle Foundry was built. The new foundry enabled John's son, William, to expand and develop his epoch-making 1830 invention, the Kitchener range cooker.

The birth of the Kitchener
Manufactured in cast iron and heated by solid fuel, the Kitchener could be used to boil, roast, bake and warm - all from the same heat source. It was hailed as one of the greatest domestic institutions of the 19th Century. Indeed a contemporary advert at the time described it as...

"the most ready means of performing in the best manner, either separately or at the same time, all the operations of cooking with only one fire, and that an open one, which may be of any size to suit the kitchen of the smallest cottage, or the largest mansion or hotel.... its arrangement is so simple, in every department of the culinary process, that servants cannot easily disorder or mismanage it."

Following the death of William Flavel in 1844, his son Sidney took over and ran the firm. In 1851 he exhibited the Kitchener at the Great Exhibition, in Crystal Palace. The exhibition celebrated the supremacy of British manufacturing and was attended by Her Majesty Queen Victoria, along with her aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester. The Duchess was so impressed with the Kitchener she ordered one for Kensington Palace.

Between 1851 and the turn of the century, the Kitchener won many more awards throughout the world. As the Victorian era wore on, the Kitchener went from strength to strength. Its status was recognised by everyone from Edward VII and the King of Italy to the Emperor of Germany - who all had Kitchener stoves.