Vintage Fridge, the antique wooden fridge company, is selling a fully restored English Rose CSA Dual Freeze fridge freezer for £5,900.
 
"I picked up this little beauty last year and have just finished refurbishing. I don't usually do metal fridges, as wood is more my thing these days, but this was lovely and complete so I had to have it," John Bodrell, owner of Vintage Fridge, told SalvoNEWS.
 
"I think it is the first and only English Rose fridge freezer C.S.A. made, although I stand ready to be corrected as I can find no further information to substantiate that claim, apart from the old chap I brought it from whose parents owned it from new in 1949. It's a top bit off kit, it works like a dream!" he said.
 
Source Antiques of Bristol, which has a couple of Dual Freeze in stock, kindly sent a photo of the control knob which is printed: 'English Rose styled. Dual Freeze. A product of C.S.A. Industries Warwick England.' with a serial number 3517. The use of the phrase 'English Rose styled' is interesting.
 
A note in the 1950 annual British 'Refrigeration World and Air-conditioning Review' states that 'The No49 Dual Freeze refrigerator includes a 1 1/2 cu ft deep freeze locker. It is made by C.S.A. Industries'.
 
A 1950s English magazine ad states: 'Freezer and normal refrigerator in one unit. CSA Dual Freeze. It's more than a refrigerator, it's an investment in better living. Cooled by Kelvinator and backed by the well-known Kelvinator Service Organization you are assured of an after-sales service second to none.'
 
In a 1950 Australian publication Queensland Pastoral Supplies of Brisbane advertises the Dual Freeze stating: 'We are sole agents for the English Rose Dual Freeze refrigerator (a Kelvinator unit) with zero freeze compartment to freeze your food and thus keep it fresh for over a year, with a larger ordinary type refrigeration cabinet. Price is only £185 …' This would have been around £75 GB Pounds in the 1950s. (In 1950 the average annual pay was £100, with the top 1% earning £1,200 a year.)
 
Brief history of CSA: Constant Speed Airscrews was formed in 1937, based at Wharf Street, Warwick, one of several companies manufacturing cutting edge 'constant speed' propellers, including the Rotol developed by Rolls Royce and Bristol Aeroplane for use on Spitfires, de Havillands and Hurricanes, and possibly a variable pitch propeller used for a Messerschmidt 109 speed record and a flight from London to Brazil. After the war production changed to the English Rose kitchen and Vitasavour pressure cookers the company was renamed C.S.A. Industries. In 1953 CSA was acquired by J B Brooks & Co, best known as makers of the Brooks bicycle saddles, which was taken over by Harris & Sheldon shopfitters in 1962. In 1961 the English Rose, Anemone and Rose Wood division employed 280 people.


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Vintage Fridge and Source Antiques are Salvo Code supporters; Source Antiques has booked a stand at the Salvo Fair at Henley on Thames taking place 28th-29th June 2015, the weekend at the start of Henley Royal Regatta.