About Us
- Free Site Surveys
- Aga & Rayburn Servicing
- Our Build and Servicing Engineers are Oftec and Corgi registered
- Friendly Advice
- New and Reconditioned Agas
- Installation and Conversion
- Reconditioning and Rebuilding
We have local service engineers covering Devon so we can supply a fast and efficient service that has been highly praised by our many satisfied customers.
All our Aga installers are Corgi and Oftec registered, we also have fully qualified HETAS engineers for installation and servicing of solid fuel appliances.
Company History
Garton King Appliances Ltd is one of the South West's oldest companies.
The business was originally started in the 17th Century by John Atken, then called The Golden Hammer; it quickly became a flourishing ironmongery shop. After selling selections of wares in wrought iron, brass and copper, the business went from strength to strength until 1826, when a disastrous fire destroyed the foundry and smithy. Undeterred, The Golden Hammer was relocated to a new site and within 10 years Messrs Garton & Jarvis took over other premises, continuing to improve the outstanding reputation of the firm.
With high-class stove making (the company won a gold medal for one of their stoves at the Great Exhibition of 1851) and ironmongery skills, many fine examples of the firm's work were to be seen around the City of Exeter, including the gates of the old Exeter Bank (now part of the Royal Clarence Hotel), railings around various prominent buildings, as well as producing one of the earliest pipe coil radiators. After Garton's partner died in 1865, John Gould King became a partner with the firm, which was subsequently renamed "Garton & King".
In 1972 Garton & King split into two independent companies, Garton & King remaining the Foundry side of the business and Garton King Appliances being created to deal with the increasingly high profile side of the business as distributors for Aga-Rayburn. In 1979 Garton & King and the Foundry in Tan Lane finally closed.
Today, however, the sign of the Golden Hammer still hangs in Exeter, now outside the offices and showrooms of Garton King Appliances at 19 North Street, but the firm that John Atken started selling candlesticks, harness fittings and carriage metalwork, now sells the premier range cookers in the country, and all the accompanying cookware, thus still maintaining the tradition of service at a high standard to the local community and beyond.
For further information on the long and illustrious history of Garton King Appliances Ltd (including when the company was awarded two bronze medals for revolutionary stove design at the Great Exhibition in 1851 with a commendation from Prince Albert!), please click on the link below:
