Whilst looking up the name for those flat oblong things (griddles) that you can use to fry large quantities and make American pancakes, I found a fundamental difference between UK and US cookers.
The kind of cooker/(stove?) that is usually found in a British home has a separate grill, usually above the oven with the food cooked under the heat in a "grill pan" (a two tier affair with a rack resting above an oblong metal tray, as described). I read that US cookers usually have an oven which doubles as a grill if only the top element is used.
Just to complicate matters, in more modern/more expensive cookers the grill is slightly larger and can be used as a second oven. Some cheaper models have a combined single oven/grill AGAs and some range cookers do not have grills. See cookers at
http://www.comet.co.uk for more pictures of
fairly ordinary cookers than you may ever want to see. I couldn’t find an equivalent American site.
As an aside I am always surprised that French holiday homes rarely have an oven, only a hob. Ovens are obviously not considered to be important.
