Welcome to the Repair Shop, where cherished family heirlooms are brought back to life.
Anything can happen. This is the workshop of dreams. Home to furniture restorer Jay Blades.
Nowadays, things are not built to last, so we've become part of this throwaway culture.
It's all about preserving and restoring.
We bring the old back to new.
Working alongside Jay will be some of the country's leading craftspeople.
I like making things with my hands.
I love to see how things work and I want to know how things work.
Whether it's a Rembrandt or somebody's family piece,
every painting deserves the same.
Each bringing their own unique set of skills...
You're about to witness some magic.
..they will resurrect, revive...
Oh, yes!
..and rejuvenate treasured possessions
and irreplaceable pieces of family history.
Oh, my goodness me! It looks like it's new!
Bringing both the objects...
SHE GASPS
Oh, wow!
..and the memories that they hold back to life.
Oh! Thank you!
In the Repair Shop today,
a secret mission to restore some precious family heirlooms.
My wife, she doesn't know about this, so... She doesn't know about what? What do you mean?
She doesn't know you've got these? No.
And Steve and Dom team up to tussle with a piece of farming history.
Wahey!
First, the Repair Shop is taking delivery of something big.
There we go. This must be our guy.
I don't even know what he's bringing us, actually.
I think it's heavy, though. I think it's going to be heavy.
Richard Harrison is a parish councillor in the village of
Coates in Cirencester,
where a century-old treasured timepiece is in danger of
being consigned to history.
Steve, we've got another one here for you. It's a pocket watch!
Oh, wow! That's nice! Wow!
This exciting restoration is a massive job,
which will test the talents of the whole team.
Clock specialist Steve has also called in Dominic Chinea for his metalworking skills.
So, Richard, could you tell us anything about the history of the clock?
So, the clock was purchased by the villagers in 1911 to
celebrate the coronation of George V.
All right, OK.
It sits on what is now a residential property,
but was at the time the National School. OK.
Up until the late '80s, it was mechanical and then
they converted it to a quartz battery movement.
What do you reckon, then, Dom? The water's definitely got into it. Yeah.
This is probably the worst area, from looking at it.
That really has, hasn't it? You can put your hand in there, can't you?
Careful, you might cut yourself. Someone's been in here before, look.
There's bits of filler and expanding foam, or something.
It would be nice to have a look inside. There you go.
So it's just stuck on with tape! LAUGHTER
It's 100 years old. We've been innovative throughout the years.
So it's a wooden frame inside.
The wood doesn't actually look that bad.
So it must be some good quality old oak, I would imagine.
Is the other side similar to this, or is it...?
Other than the broken glass...
Oh, it's got broken glass on the other side. ..the other side is exactly the same.
Oh, my word!
See the wood at the bottom again. It really has rotted away just there.
Dom, what are your initial thoughts? Yeah, it's definitely a job.
The great thing is we've got all of the original hardware,
all of the original doors. Although they're held on with gaffer tape, they're still there,
so we can save them and put them back in. Yeah.
As they were. Yeah, which is great.
Get some new glass.
I think that would be very much appreciated by the villagers. OK.
I think it sounds brilliant, so thank you.
You're welcome.
Well, thanks a lot for bringing that along. Thank you.
Once it's fully restored, we'll get it back to you.
Thank you very much. Right. Thank you. Cheers. Cheers.
Well, Dom.
You've got your work cut out here. I know, yeah!
I think the villagers at the moment are hopefully putting
a lot of trust in the chairman of the parish council.
I think when the clock returns,
we'll reinstall the clock and then hopefully, plenty of tea,
homemade cakes, and a bit of a party to celebrate the return of
a very, I suppose, important icon within the village.
Every aspect of this clock needs care and attention and
because it has two faces, it's double the amount of work.
We'll get all of the clock mechanism off, get the wood out,
you're left with the steel frame.
There's so many nice, original details, it'd be so nice to
save what we can, cut out the rotten bits, and replace the damaged areas.
So we'll come and pick it up in about half an hour? Yeah(!)
No problem(!) LAUGHTER
Have you ever repaired a clock before?
I've not repaired a clock, no. I wouldn't know where to start with the actual clock mechanisms.
So it's just this little unit here.
It's better if I put a battery unit where the village folk can
get to it. Easily serviced. Yeah.
I just want to get this main steel drum stripped bare,
take it away to get it sandblasted. Right.
Which will remove any paint and filler and all the previous repairs.
It'll take everything away. Whatever's left will be solid metal.
Sandblasting is a specialist job.
So while Dom sends the drum off to a local company,
Steve can begin tackling the rust on the clock faces.
Now, what I'm doing is I'm cleaning it out with some polymer
polish and a bit of very, very fine wire wool.
The difficulty is avoiding all the black paintwork,
so I don't rub that off.
It's taking time. I can only do a small area at a time.
So I've got to really,
really take care that I'm protecting every little bit of it.
But on the whole, I'm really pleased at how it's coming on.
The boys may have their hands full with the titanic timepiece,
but there's a new arrival at the Repair Shop.
So, what have we got here, then? What have we, yeah?
This intriguing contraption has been brought in by local museum
trustee Jane Barnes.
It's very heavily built, isn't it? It's solid.
Hello. Hello.
Hi. Right, what have we got here, then?
We believe it to be a hay press. Ah. For making hay bales. Yeah.
Before the 19th century,
cutting and storing hay by hand was backbreaking work.
But Britain flourished during the Industrial Revolution,
with inventions and advancements taking farming up a gear.
This hay baler would have been key in making the farmer's life
that bit sweeter.
And you put the hay in there...? Yes.
It gets pressed down and then you open the door to take the bale out.
Ah, it must have taken ages to do that, to produce a hay bale.
Mustn't it? They reckon that a two-man team could do 72 bales in a day.
In a day? 72! Oh, my word! So, what's wrong with it?
It doesn't work. This, I think.
We'd like to be able to show our visitors what happened
because they're quite intrigued by it.
I think the problem's the mechanism, up in here. It's just rusted. Ah.
It's probably sat for, I don't know, 50 years... 50 years, yeah.
Right. Well, leave it with us. We'll get it working, though, for sure.
Yeah? Yeah, absolutely. OK. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Thanks for coming in.
Well, we've got our work cut out here. Absolutely.
We're looking forward very much to its return and we'll be able
to see how it worked
and what people had to do in order to feed their horses!
Confident this should be a relatively quick fix,
Steve and Dom get cracking straightaway.
First thing we need to do, I think,
is just see if we can loosen off these nuts.
Just try and free them up. Yeah, yeah. Cos it's so rusty.
Mind your fingers.
Go on. Go on. Go for it. Ooh!
We've got the actual press moving and that just needs de-rusting
and oiling. Then it's going to move quite freely.
Mm. Urgh.
It's always the last bit that's always difficult.
Always the last bit. Always the last bit. Yeah.
Ready? Yeah.
Oh. Yeah, that's it. It's going. Wahey!
An hour later, and the hay press is in pieces.
How are we going to clean this up? Do you think a fine file or emery or something?
Yeah, wire wool, something like that, will clean it up fine, yeah.
Do you remember how it goes back together? No idea.
HE LAUGHS
That's what you're here for.
HE COUGHS Sorry.
With the parts now clean, it's time to rebuild.
Ha-ha. Turn it over.
Have I? Turn it over.
Turn it over. Inside out. It's inside out, yeah.
Sorry.
That's a bit more like it.
They can't afford to get it wrong, as museum trustee Jane is due back.
Hello, Jane. Hello. How are we doing? Come on in. Fine, thank you.
How are you? I'm very good. Had a busy day? Always.
It's always busy here. Yes. Steve, can you do us a favour, mate?
Do you want to bring it over? I will. If you come this way, then.
This vintage agricultural machine was rusted to a standstill,
but thanks to Steve and Dom, it's now a fully functioning example.
Not only have we got it moving,
but we've got it making hay bales.
Real hay!
Wow!
Ooh! There we go.
Now you can imagine it being used.
Yeah. I think the children will be really interested.
And adults, as well, actually, because everybody has a look at it.
Yeah. They've never seen anything like it before. Excellent.
So, we're not going to ask you to put this on your roof rack
because it's a little bit too heavy. But we'll get this shipped down to the museum for you,
as long as you're happy with it.
I'm very happy with it. I think you've done a wonderful job.
Thank you very much indeed. Pleasure. Thank you. Thank you.
Thanks, Jay. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
With one more satisfied customer sent on her way,
Dom and Steve can get back to the village clock.
Meanwhile, another visitor, Graham Kellie from Reigate,
has arrived with a fragile piece, requiring a more delicate touch.
Hello. Good morning. How are we doing? Fine, thank you.
So, what have we got here, then?
And when it comes to handling delicate goods,
Guillaume Pons is the man with the golden touch.
We've got here, two Royal Worcester vases from the early 1900s.
Both damaged when we inherited them in 1996.
Wondering what you can do to make them better.
All right, we'll best get them out and have a look then.
How did you get these? Or how have they come into your hands?
Right, they belong to my wife and she inherited them from her
Granny Doris, who died in 1996.
I brought them today in memory of Granny Doris cos she
absolutely adored her granddaughter, who is my wife, Shirley.
And we've got some great memories attached to them. Yeah.
So, what we've got here,
this one has lost just a nasty chip out of there.
And this one is slightly more serious, that it's got quite
severe cracking on the base, as if it's been dropped and smashed.
Yeah.
So, I'm hoping you guys can perform some magic and get them back
to how they were.
Actually what happened is it was broken in two, in two pieces. Yes.
And then someone put far too much glue in it. Yes.
And the wrong glue, as well. So the idea is just to take it apart. Yes.
Clean it very well. Glue it back properly, with the right adhesive.
Yes. And a bit of fill where it's necessary.
And then it will look very good. Lovely.
And the same for this one. It can be restored, as well.
Will the colour be the same? Yeah, of course.
It's just I'm going to be under severe pressure from my wife
when I show her these because she doesn't know about this.
She doesn't know about what? What do you mean?
She doesn't know you've got these? No. Sometime, she's going to notice they're missing from the
china cabinet. That'll be a pleasant surprise.
It will be a pleasant surprise for her. But my life is in your hands.
If this goes wrong... It won't go wrong.
..my life won't be worth living.
So what would this mean to your wife, to get these fully restored?
Oh, she'll be delighted because she's been told these are not restorable.
Well, what I'll say is leave them both with us and then as soon
as they're fully restored and repaired, we'll get back to you.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.
The look on her face, I can't wait to see it,
when I do actually reveal these vases to her,
fully restored and the link with her Grandma Doris will be complete.
So, no pressure whatsoever(!)
Wife doesn't know that these are missing.
Cor blimey!
But that is quite crude, isn't it?
Yeah, well, it's quite often that you see this kind of restoration.
You know, it's been done by someone in the family or
a cleaner who broke it and so scared that she put it back very quickly.
These vases date back to the early 1900s and were painted by
Harry Stinton.
A Royal Worcester artist for nearly 70 years,
his work is highly coveted amongst porcelain collectors.
Guillaume's first task is to steam clean the vase.
It is a bit often, the glue, you can
see that it is moving a bit already.
That looks a bit severe, man!
Yeah, it is all right. It's not that hot. I mean, it's hot.
It's OK for the vase and it's OK for my fingers as well.
I like that. I do like that. It's like dry cleaning for ceramics.
Yeah. That's what it is.
Outside the Repair Shop, in the forge,
the village clock's metal drum is back from its sandblasting session.
Hello, Jay. How's it going? Good. What are you doing?
We're just patching in all and repairing all the rusty bits,
now this has all been blasted.
But hold on a minute, this is not the same one, or is it the same one?
Yes, it is. Because of the blasting, it's stripped off all of the old
paint and the rust and everything else. So this is just the bare steel.
Cool. That bit's come out of there. Yeah.
It's got all the corrosion and the rust and then I've remade the
panel that we can just put back in. Right, watch your eyes, then.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
I've got my Blues Brothers glasses, so I can put these on.
All right, you're perfect. Go for it.
Inside the Repair Shop, Steve's begun work on the bezels that
hold the glass faces in place.
The one great thing is it's actually brass.
I'm going to polish the brass up, lacquer it, and set against the
black of the rest of the case of the clock,
it's going to look absolutely spectacular.
The way it was, probably, when it was new.
So this has come up really, really well.
We went through about ten layers of paint and lacquer before
getting through to this surface and that'll lacquer up really well now.
Meanwhile, woodwork whizzkid Will is dealing with the clock's
internal structure, which is the worse for wear,
thanks to some serious water damage.
What I might do is saw off all of this rotten wood here, maybe up to
this line, cut a new piece of oak, stick it on and then carve it back in.
You could easily just sort of make everything brand-new,
but I think that kind of takes away the history of the piece and
the story behind it.
We speak a lot in here about throwaway society,
people buying cheaper, easily made furniture,
throwing it in the bin when it breaks,
whereas there's something quite nice about keeping on to old furniture
and adding bits to it to sort of keep it pushing forwards in time.
It's a huge team effort to ensure this clock lasts another 100 years.
It's definitely going to be future-proof.
Absolutely. That's definitely going to hold it, is it?
I think so, cos it's holding it now, isn't it?
It would be a disaster if it does.
Well, Will can fix it again, can't he?
THEY LAUGH
Steve's working his magic on the clock mechanism,
which hasn't ticked or tocked for over a year.
And he's come up with an ingenious solution to enable the
villagers to change the batteries.
This is made out of an old broom handle.
It's for plugging into where the battery was.
Where the battery should go.
And then this battery compartment will be down the bottom of
the clock, so that anyone can change the battery without trying to reach
up and put a battery in there, which will make it a lot easier for them.
With the wooden frame complete, now comes the challenge of
positioning it correctly within the drum.
Mind your fingers.
Lovely paintwork, Jay. Lovely paintwork.
Now you're going to mess it up. Go on, mess it up. Go on.
Whoa, whoa. About that much, before we need to...
LAUGHTER
OK, hold it. We're nearly there. Need to measure, really.
Quite relieved now, actually, that's the final time that's going to have to go in.
We don't have to take it out again. So...yeah.
It's rather more quiet over on Guillaume's workbench,
as he deftly works on the delicate Royal Worcester vases.
When I removed the glue,
it's like you see that the breakage is actually very clean.
For me, it's a very good sign, because it mean that I just,
with the steam clean, I finish to clean it a bit all around.
And then I put it back and then you would see the crack disappear.
With all traces of glue and grime removed,
a transparent adhesive is applied to stick the pieces back together.
That is really nice!
I do like that. I can't get over how good that looks.
Yeah, that's why the cleaning was so important,
that's why you really have to get rid of the old glue.
I bet they didn't even know that was the original colour. I'm sure, yeah.
It hasn't been the original colour for, like, decades.
THEY LAUGH
Wow! So this... That one, to me, looks nearly done.
So, this one, I need to take a mould of the rim to build up the
rim with some resin.
OK, I'm with you.
Guillaume uses a silicon mould to get an impression of the rim,
so he can recreate the damaged side.
So, now, I can feel like it's hard, so it's set, so I can remove it.
Using a resin paste that matches the colour of the porcelain,
he fills in the chip and then leaves it to dry.
I am very pleased, actually, because the filler went everywhere,
so I don't have to add more.
I think, just sanding what there is will be enough.
After sanding down the excess, it's time to make
a start on the tricky task of matching up the paintwork.
The acrylic tend to darken a bit
when it dries, so it's always better
to start with a lighter colour and then see how it dries after.
You can't do it in only one layer.
You have to build up a bit, retouching with the gold layers.
So, how are we getting on? Painting time.
Yeah, it's going very well, yeah.
I need to do a bit of gilding on the rim and I'm going to try with
gold powder. So, what's powder? Is it different? Oh, it's this stuff?
Yeah, it's kind of like metal powder. It's delicate, isn't it?
I just lifted it and it starts... Yeah. Oh!
LAUGHTER
My lovely yellow is full of... That's why you shouldn't get me...
That's why Kirsten doesn't allow me to touch anything. Sorry about that.
Can't go wrong with a bit of gold everywhere.
While Guillaume continues his painstaking paintwork on the
antique vases...
Are we ready? Yes.
Moment of truth.
..it's the final countdown for the clock... Wow! Oh, my God!
It looks brilliant!
..in readiness for its return to the village of Coates in the Cotswolds.
Don't go dropping it.
I think the village are going to be really, really happy with this.
Cor blimey! Look what you've created. A masterpiece.
Well done, well done.
Thank you.
With the restoration complete,
the clock has returned to the picturesque village of Coates,
its home for over 100 years, where chairman of the parish council
Richard is about to unveil it to the village.
I'm really excited about seeing what's under here.
That is amazing!
Wow! The face of the clock is incredible!
They have done an amazing job, yeah!
Last time this was stuck on with something like gaffer tape.
When the clock arrived at the Repair Shop, it was in sorry state.
Now, it looks positively stately.
I cannot wait to see this up and to see those hands ticking.
I'm really, really pleased.
And the villagers will be really, really pleased with it.
That's a clock to be proud of.
As Richard returns the clock to its rightful place,
the grand unveiling can commence.
Thank you for joining me and to
welcome back the restored clock.
If you can join me in a countdown.
ALL: Five, four, three, two, one.
CHEERS AND APPLAUSE
I'm the fifth generation of my family to live in the village.
I have very fond memories of looking at it.
I'm thrilled that they've taken the trouble to get it restored to
its former glory.
We all knew it was part of the village history and it was
a focal point in a way, with it being on the old National School.
And it's just beautiful to see it back.
It's been a revelation, you know,
to have that splendid restoration on the front of our house.
It's quite a privilege.
I think today's been a resounding success and I think the
Repair Shop has done more than just repair the clock.
I think it's given us a bit of community spirit,
which I think is awesome.
Back at the Repair Shop, Guillaume is finishing the restoration
of the Royal Worcester vases. How are we doing with the time?
Graham needs to get these back before his wife notices. It's done.
Is it? Yeah, yeah. Really? You've finished? Yeah.
Cool. Let's have a look, then. Have a look. You're good!
You're too good! Lady and gentleman, if you don't mind,
come and have a butcher's at this.
Ladies. And Will.
Ladies and gentlemen.
These... Look at that.
They look like they're sort of perfect, come off a shelf somewhere.
They do. That's a cracking job! Ah! No pun intended.
Hopefully, she hasn't noticed that these have gone.
She's going to be really pleased with that.
Thrilled. Over the moon. Start the claps. Ready?
THEY APPLAUD
Well done!
I am blushing.
Let's get them wrapped up.
When these vases came to the Repair Shop, one had
a huge chip in the rim and the other had suffered a bodged repair.
But Guillaume's skilful craftsmanship
has returned them to near mint condition.
I am very happy.
I think it looks very good and then I hope Graham is going to be happy.
He should be happy, and especially his wife.
His wife has to be happy with the work because it belongs to her.
The vases are now safely back in Graham's hands,
but his mission to surprise his wife Shirley didn't go to plan.
After you've been married to someone for quite a while,
it's very difficult to keep secrets.
I noticed that the vases were missing when I looked at the
china cabinet and I thought, where's the two little ones gone?
And eventually, I got it out of Graham that
he was going to have them restored professionally.
Here we go.
I can't wait to see these. Two of your granny's vases.
I really cannot wait.
And look at that. It's a really good job. That is completely invisible.
That is absolutely a work of art.
The damage was in a really pertinent part of it.
It wasn't hidden or anything. And it was so, so difficult to hide.
I think Granny Doris would be very, very pleased with that.
I think she'd be very pleased with that, as well.
It's a great job. First class. OK, that's vase number one.
Let's have a look at vase number two.
Oh, my goodness! You can't see any of it.
It's as if it's just come out from being produced.
I'm so pleased with that. You mean it? I do. Thank you so much!
You've got lipstick on you now.
That is wonderful.
Two perfect vases, in my book.
The vases mean a lot to me cos they belonged to my grandma
and we were very close.
And for the future now that they've been repaired,
they'll go on for more generations, so we're really pleased.
Join us next time,
as more cherished possessions go from neglected to perfected.