STOVES installed by a Barnoldswick company have been given the Royal approval by HRH The Prince of Wales.

ESSE Engineering, based at the Ouzledale Foundry, Long Ing, fitted four heat stoves at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, which was bought by a consortium headed by Prince Charles in 2007.

“We supplied all the stoves for the property,” ESSE’s sales director Mark Blewitt said.

“He invited us to the opening for part of the property and we were delighted to be there.”

Mark, along with managing director Martin Ashby, chatted and shared jokes with HRH The Prince of Wales, who celebrated becoming a grandparent for the first time last week, as they showed off one of their ESSE 700 stoves fitted at the historic property earlier this month. The multi-fuel woodburning stove is the flagship product in the company’s new-look range.

It is suitable for larger properties requiring higher outputs and features Afterburn, a precision secondary air control system, and will benefit Dumfries House which was built between 1754 and 1759 for the fifth Earl of Dumfries.

In 2007, Prince Charles, under his title as the Great Steward of Scotland, headed a consortium of charities and heritage bodies to purchase the house, its contents and adjoining land, in order to keep them intact and accessible to the public.

ESSE Engineering was established in 1854 and currently employs 74 members of staff. The firm boasts historic admirers too.

Florence Nightingale would use no other brand of cooker in her Balaclava hospital, while famous explorers Shackleton and Scott relied on ESSE to provide hot food and warmth during their expeditions to some of the world’s coldest and most inhospitable places.

An ESSE range cooker even appeared on the big screen in the James Bond hit movie, ‘A view to a kill’.

Mark said: “The stoves are affordable and we sell them through retailers in the Lancashire Telegraph’s area such as the Fireplace Warehouse in Burnley.”