Set for the scrapheap? "Distraught" Val's cooker finally condemned after 61 years

DISTRAUGHT Val Marks (pictured) said she was in shock after being forced to pull the plug on her prized cooker after 61 years.

The New World 42 gas oven had been snapped up by Val’s mum back in 1959 and was still going strong.

But it was condemned after an engineer from council contractor Fortem found it was leaking lethal carbon monoxide.

Val, of East Dene, said she still had hopes of saving her beloved 1950s appliance from the scrapheap as she was in talks with Clifton Park Museum about adding it to their collection.

“I want it to go to the museum so other people can see what a good cooker it was.

“My mum bought it from the gas board and it was her pride and joy.

“I was only young when she got it and it went from Douglas Street to East Crescent to Cambridge Street to Netherfield to Newstead Close and then to Valley Road.

“It been up and down a lot of stairs, this cooker.

“I inherited it when my mum Grace died in 1999 aged 79.

“I’ve never heard of one that’s lasted 61 years. They don’t make things to last anymore.”

Val, who also has a Hoover vacuum cleaner dating back to 1967, which is still working, said she had still been using the oven but a new carbon monoxide dectector installed at her Herringthorpe Valley Road flat had raised the alarm.

“I had my flat rewired and they put a carbon monoxide detector in and it kept going off,” she said.

“The cooker has been tested and it’s leaking carbon monoxide from the side.

“A guy called Chris from Fortem came and checked it out and said it was in great condition but it couldn’t be repaired because you can’t get the parts.

“Everything was working but he said carbon monoxide was coming out of it.

“I had the thermostat fixed a few years ago and it was still going great.

“I’ll be very sad to let it go after 61 years.”