Welcome to the Repair Shop,
where cherished family heirlooms are brought back to life.
This is the workshop of dreams.
Home to furniture restorer Jay Blades.
Nowadays everybody spends a fortune on stuff
that once it's broken they just bin it.
But everybody has something that means too much to be thrown away.
And that's where we come in.
Working alongside Jay
will be some of the country's leading craftspeople.
Every piece has its own story.
It's amazing to think that some of my work becomes part
of that story.
I've always played with things. I've always repaired things.
And I just love it.
There is a real pleasure in bringing people's pieces back to life again.
Each with their own unique set of skills.
I can't wait to get started.
They will resurrect...
..revive...
..and rejuvenate...
..treasured possessions
and irreplaceable pieces of family history.
Wow!
Bringing both the objects...
She's fantastic! That's just taken me back 50 years.
..and the memories that they hold...
SHE GASPS Oh, yes!
..back to life.
Oh, my God!
In the Repair Shop today, an unlikely visitor
in the shape of a Roman deity.
So it takes two of you to fix Hercules?
Cor blimey. I thought you guys were stronger than this guy.
What's going on? This is a really, really, really clever fix.
And the upholstery gods are smiling on Susie and Sonnaz.
Ooh, look at that!
That was lucky.
End of the bobbin.
First through the doors of the Repair Shop
is Jane Maddy from Lincolnshire with an unusual package.
Hi there. Please come over.
She's hoping furniture restorer Will Kirk
will cast his expert eye over its contents.
What's in the box? It's a smoker's stand.
A smoker's stand.
I don't think we've actually ever had a smoker's stand in before.
So what can you tell me about this?
It's always been around. It belonged to my grandparents.
My grandfather's, he always smoked a pipe.
I've got memories of it with pipes all the way along there
right from being little.
It seems to be in pretty good condition apart from
obviously the missing leg, which you say is in here. It's there.
What are these pieces here? Just bits that fit in the top.
I presume that's for...
I presume it's where they tap their tobacco.
Gosh. It's very fancy.
Are you a pipe smoker yourself?
Not recently! No, I can't say I have ever smoked a pipe.
And I think that one was for matches. Matches, probably, yeah.
And then that's your little striking plate.
How clever. To strike matches on.
I actually smoked a pipe for a year when I was at art school.
Did you? I thought it was trendy.
It probably wasn't very trendy.
But yeah, I definitely didn't have anything like this.
So you inherited this from your grandfather. He died many years ago.
I was brought up by my grandparents.
He was a cobbler. I've got great memories
of being in the shop from very young
and just stood watching my grandad.
Well, it seemed like hours at the time, just mending the shoes.
Was he smoking a pipe whilst mending them?
I think he did do, yes, yes.
It's probably one of the only reminders I've got
of my grandparents.
I know it's only a little thing, but to me
it absolutely means the world, so I'd like it really fixed
so that I can have it on display in my house again.
I will do everything I can.
That would be wonderful.
Well, I'll let you know how we get on. Brilliant.
It's really nice to meet you.
Thank you very much. Thank you for coming in.
I'm quite nervous about leaving my grandfather's smoking stand behind.
The stand has a lot of nice memories for me.
Memories of my grandad sat there, puffing on his pipe.
And the smell of tobacco brings that back as well.
And my grandma busily probably Hoovering round it and polishing it,
and telling him off for smoking too much.
How are we doing, Will?
This is Jane's smoking stand, eh?
If I had a pipe right now, I'd be resting my pipe
upon the top. Well, not literally,
but in these holes here.
So it's missing a leg. Oh, you've got the leg.
I have the leg here. So the leg's broken off.
Well, the wood's broken off underneath,
and then the leg's popped out.
So I need to patch that wood back in and glue that back in.
So what about these bits here? They're missing as well.
I didn't even notice that.
Are they...? That's brass. That could actually be brass.
Is it? Do you think so? Yeah, I think so. Maybe.
Oh, this is loose as well. Right.
Well, that's another thing on my list. Sorry.
And then a general clean and a wax.
Yeah. But not going to clean out that, are we? No.
Cos that's her grandfather's tobacco.
Yeah. No, we've got that in there.
So once you've done this, what you should do is just take it over
to Steve, see if he can make those.
I'm sure he's going to help you out with that.
Have a good one. Cheers, Jay.
Next to arrive at the workshop - Carl Sebastian and his dad Jeff.
They've brought with them a piece of classic '60s furniture
for the attention of master saddle maker
and leather expert Suzie Fletcher.
Hi, I'm Suzie. I'm Jeff. Nice to meet you, Jeff.
Carl. Nice to meet you. Carl, nice to meet you too.
My word, what is this?
It's a leaf chair.
I've never seen anything like it, it's just from my nan's house.
So this belongs to your nan?
Yeah, it used to. We call her Nonna. Nonna? Yeah, she's Italian.
When my grandad passed away,
she was downsizing and she didn't have enough room to put it
in her new house,
so she called me straightaway,
since I know how much she loved the chair, and she gave it to me.
So this belonged to your nan. Yeah.
So, was Nonna into the swinging '60s? I'd say so.
Yeah, she's pretty cool.
This was set up by the record player.
Right.
So Tony, Carl's grandad,
used to lie in here and listen to the music.
Every time I went to my nan's house, yeah, from a baby,
I'd always...everyone would race to sit in the chair. Oh, really?
Could more than one of you sit in it?
Yeah, yeah, we could. We used to pretend it's a boat.
So what does it feel like to sit in?
Lovely. Amazing, yeah. It is? You'd fall asleep in it.
Oh, really?
So how exactly did it end up in this state?
Well, basically, Carl, his sisters and his cousins,
they all used to sit in the chair.
And then it got to a stage where this is getting tighter
and tighter and brittle
and Carl's cousin sat on it one day,
and it just split, it just gave way.
That's after all the kids had been sitting on it. Wow.
Well, we'll have to see what I can do here.
But looking at this grain here,
I believe this is buffalo hide.
OK. Very, very strong and it has a very prominent grain.
So my plan is to use as close to the original leather
as possible.
Thank you so much, Carl, for bringing it in
and putting your trust in me.
Thank you. And I can't wait to get started. So we'll be in touch.
We'll leave it with you. Looking forward to it. Thank you.
Thank you. Bye. Bye.
Yeah, it would mean a lot to have it repaired.
Thinking back, the way it used to be,
seeing the kids playing on the chair.
It's always been, like, a feature
in the sitting room. You know, it'd be good to,
once it's repaired, to be able to use it
and, yeah, make the most of it again
and probably bring back the memories I had as a child in the chair.
Based on the shape of a leaf,
the chair's design dates back to 1967 and was originally available
in other fabrics as well as leather.
Hanging chairs reached the peak of their popularity
in the swinging '60s,
but this leaf chair is still highly collectible.
So now I've got a chance to look at this leaf chair that Carl left
with me, and...
..I am scratching my head a little bit.
I'm concerned because it has many angles to it...
..which create this overall shape that literally just cradles
the body when it's lying in there,
and...
..I've never done anything like this before. So, uh,
perhaps, Sonnaz, if you're available,
could I ask you to come and have a look at this for me, please? Sure.
Sonnaz Nooranvary is an expert in furniture restoration,
both traditional and modern. So you can see how badly damaged this is.
Wow. And... It's had a lot of use, hasn't it?
My quandary is making a pattern... Yep. ..for this that...
..it creates this bowl shape.
I think that we need to make a pattern somehow.
It might be a good idea...
..to maybe use calico?
Calico is just a really...
..cheap fabric, like a cotton.
So, we make three patterns. Yeah.
Stick them together. Yeah.
Offer them up to the frame to see where we're at. Yep.
Perfect. OK, sounds like a plan.
So I just need to take this leather off, then.
Do you need any help with that or...? Yeah, that'd be great. OK.
Over in the carpentry corner, Will is getting to grips
with the legless smoker's stand.
Before patching the base with a new piece of wood,
he's first cutting away any damaged timber.
Sometimes when working on a piece like this, it can be really hard
to know how much wood to remove.
There's always the risk of going too far, taking out more wood
than you need to.
It has to be structurally sound,
so I think I've gone to the right level here.
It's not a bad fit, actually.
It doesn't look flush with the surface now, but once that's dried,
then I can chisel and plane it down nice and smooth.
That's nice and flush now.
I'm now going to drill out a new hole for the leg to go back in.
So I'm just trying to work out
the direction of the leg.
I'll make sure I drill it out the first time...
..spot on.
That feels like a tight fit. Even without the glue,
I am that certain that's going to be strong enough to hold it,
I'm actually going to turn it round now.
Perfect! I'm really pleased with that.
Now the smoker's stand stands again.
Back on three legs,
it's time for Will to call in a favour from clockmaker Steve.
Steve... What on earth is that?
That, my friend, is a pipe stand.
A pipe stand? Yeah.
How many pipes could you get in that? Ten pipes.
For the pipe enthusiast. Right, OK.
There's some brass rings on the top, here.
And I seem to be missing one, two, three of them.
Is there any way that you can make up three more?
Does that come off?
I don't think...
Well, now! WILL LAUGHS
Well done. That was easy. Yeah.
I think it would be a nice touch
because Jane won't be expecting that.
It'll be like a nice sort of... Oh, right, OK. ..finishing touch.
Yeah. So I'll leave you with that.
I'll get on to polishing this. And let me know when you're ready.
Thanks, Steve.
Many of the items that arrive at the Repair Shop are treasured
family pieces passed on from one generation to the next.
But others have meaning to a wider community.
Liz Argent from the Westbury Heritage Society
in Wiltshire
has a heavenly body in need of some emergency surgery.
Hello, I'm Steve.
Hello, I'm Liz. Hello. Hi, Liz, I'm Matthew.
Hello, nice to meet you.
Liz has brought in a 30-kilo cast-iron statue
of the Roman god Hercules
to test the strength of Steve and metal conservator Matt Boultwood.
What a wonderful statue this is. Thank you.
Thank you. Tell me about it.
He's about 160 years old.
And he was in one of the mills in our town.
Westbury's got a tradition of cloth-making
going back, oh, 500 years or so.
So it's an important industry in the town.
Why Hercules?
Well, he's a symbol of strength
and he was on a beam engine,
which is a very powerful machine.
It powered the whole mill.
He was standing on the front of this huge cylinder,
but it was quite an interesting setting.
It looked like a classical Greek or Roman temple because there were
pillars on either side and a pediment above it all.
But when the mill converted to mains electricity,
Hercules lost his place of honour in the factory.
He was destined for the scrap yard until, in 1969, he was rescued
by factory worker Jack Ingram.
Eventually, he made his way through various owners in the town.
He came to the Westbury Heritage Society
in the end, about 25 years ago.
And he had an accident, and he lost his club.
Oh, right, that's what he's supposed to be holding.
That's what's missing, yes, yeah, yes.
Shall I have a look at the...?
So what actually happened?
Somebody was trying to move him,
and it toppled over, and his club came off.
So he's actually fractured at that join, here. Yes, yeah.
Is that easy to repair?
Um, cast iron is notoriously difficult to weld.
But I can see here there's actually like a mechanical fixing,
which we can take a look at,
to separate and see how best to repair it.
I mean, you can weld it,
but you will disturb the finish, the patina. Yes.
Which is something we'd have to be quite careful of.
When Matt has worked his magic on this statue,
what is the plan?
Oh, we'll put him back on display in the Heritage Centre.
He's got a plinth that he normally stands on, but he's one of our main
exhibits because he represents the industrial heritage of the town.
Right, OK. So I guess it's over to you, Matt.
Yeah, we'll see what we can do. OK.
Thank you, Liz, for bringing him in. Leave it with us.
Thank you very much. OK. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Nice to meet you. Bye now. Bye-bye.
I'm really hopeful that Hercules will soon be repaired
and back in Westbury.
He's been broken for ten years now, and it's also the 25th anniversary
of the founding of the Westbury Heritage Society,
so to have Hercules
put back together again would be a great achievement
this year.
So,
how are you going to fix this?
Are you going to weld this up?
I think, as it's got such a lovely patina to it,
I'm probably going to try
and avoid using any hot welding or anything that would disturb this.
There's so much weight in the piece of club,
glue is just not going to be able to hold it.
But if we put another pin and then use that as a Roman joint
to hold it together, we should be able to make
a nice, almost invisible repair.
A Roman joint?
Roman joints were used a lot on bronze sculptures,
where you wanted to join two parts
or two separate castings together.
It brings them together and clamps the pieces. Oh, excellent.
Yeah. Love that. That's fantastic.
Let's get it all over to your bench, and you can get cracking.
Do you want to pick that up and give me a hand with this?
Give you a hand. Yeah. It's quite heavy. Cor, it is, isn't it?
It really is heavy.
There we go.
Here we go.
Suzie and Sonnaz have joined forces to repair and restore
the classic 1960s leaf chair.
Their biggest challenge is to recreate the fitted leather seat.
First, they've created a template from calico.
Now, Suzie is going to see if it will fit the frame of the chair.
How you doing, Suzie? Hello.
You look a bit stuck there, girl. You all right? Yeah, well.. Yes.
It's a little bit of a challenge because I'm trying
to suspend my calico pattern
for the leaf chair...
OK. ..on to the frame, and I started off with the tape on the calico,
and it keeps sticking to me.
So I've put all the little pieces all the way around, ready to...
Oh, so this tape is to be stuck on there. Yes, yes. OK.
And this one needs to... If you could... Stick on there?
What, go round? Yeah, just down a little bit. Just down.
There we go, super. Yep.
And now I'm just going to go around the curve here and here.
So if you'd like to maybe do that side. OK.
So this is to see whether the pattern fits, then,
that you've created. Yeah.
Now, this seams... It doesn't want to be tight.
So you want that like that, stuck on there? Brilliant.
Yes.
You've done a good job there.
It's working out.
My famous last words! The kiss of death there, huh?
So, Sonnaz, have we got this right, then?
Have you seen this?
Oh, she's going to come over. Oh, yes.
She's going to inspect our work.
Stand by your bunks. It's awesome.
Is that cool? Yeah, really cool. I'm liking this. Remember?
We were worried about how this was going to lay.
Yeah, no, that looks great, doesn't it? Yeah.
I'm really relieved. I'm pleasantly surprised.
That seam is perfect, cos that's where your lowest
point of weight is going to sit, cos your bum's going to be there.
Yep, yep, yep. Yeah. Yeah, fabulous. So there's going to be eyelets
all the way up here? Yeah. How's it going to be attached?
We're not using tape, are we? We're going to go a little bit hi-tech, aren't we?
Well, we're thinking maybe it might be...
Might be string? Elastic bands?
Yeah. So it'll be leather belting going all the way around. OK.
Which is Suzie's department. Cool.
I like the sound of that. Yeah.
But, no, that looks awesome. Yeah. I'm really happy with it.
Confident the calico test sample has been a success,
Suzie can now go hell for leather with the real thing.
This is a full-grain hide,
which means this is the strongest part,
the top layer of the hide.
And I want to make sure
any area or any seam that's going to take a great deal
of stress, we maximise
those tougher areas of the hide.
I'm really very confident that this is going to look quite lovely
when I'm finished.
Will has recruited Steve to help
with the brass work on the smoker's stand.
Before replacing the missing pipe rings,
he's giving the old ones
a bit of a polish.
I think it was obviously very, very well used
once upon a time.
Someone very proud of their pipe smoking, I think.
The smell of old smoke when I'm doing this is incredible.
Just put the final touches on.
For the new rings to fit perfectly and to match the old ones,
Steve has no room for error.
13. I think that'll be all right. I'll give that a whirl.
So I'm going to turn this out of the solid bar.
It does seem a very large piece of brass to be...
..turning just for those three pieces,
but it's the only way I can do it.
I'm almost there.
Right, that should be deep enough for...
..three of those units.
But all Steve's efforts will be wasted
if Will doesn't get the woodwork finished on time.
So I've actually taken this back off of Steve's bench, glued it back on.
So I've just finished polishing everything else. I'm just now
going to polish this last piece here.
And hopefully, then Steve be ready with the brass hoops, but this
is going out the door very soon,
and I'm starting to get quite worried about the time.
I keep checking - the last thing I want to do is turn it too small.
It's very frustrating when you do that.
So now that the polish is dried, I don't want this to look blingy,
so I'm just using the soft wire wool to take that...
..the edge off that shine.
I don't want it to like it's been dipped in honey.
HE CHUCKLES
The next process is I've got to shape the front of this
and make it rounded, like the original inserts.
Good, that's done. So...
That's how they came off the lathe. That's how they
turned up. And hopefully, they'll slip in nicely.
On the other side of the workshop,
the statue of Hercules is testing the mettle
of conservator Matt.
This is quite nerve-racking cos I do only get one go to get
this hole in the right place.
His plan to reattach Hercules' broken club
relies entirely on Matt drilling through the 160-year-old iron
in exactly the right place.
Nice clean hole through there.
Now, the trick with this kind of joint is that we actually want
the hole in the structure inside to be slightly out of line,
so that when you hammer a pin through it, it clamps the two pieces
together. I just need to drill through here slightly lower,
so that when the pin goes through, it gives it a nice firm fit.
This offset fixing is known in the trade as a Roman joint.
The technique is believed to have first been used
by ancient Roman craftsmen.
Just biting on that last bit.
And we're through.
Moment of truth.
And that is almost perfect.
You can just see half of the edge of the hole inside,
so when the pin goes through, that should clamp that up quite nicely.
Right, Matt, how are you getting on?
Not too bad.
Just cutting the pin off
that will make the final joint for the club.
This is the Roman joint, is it?
This is the Roman joint.
I love learning about things like that.
I'm going to use that in things that I make as well.
That's fantastic.
So it takes two of you to fix Hercules, yeah?
THEY LAUGH
Cor, blimey. I thought you guys were stronger than this guy. No, no.
This is a really, really, really clever fix.
So there's nothing I could do to this?
You could put the pin in if you want. I could do the honours?
You could. Can I just ask a question?
Is there any danger in it splitting the cast iron?
Because if you're pulling it in,
if the holes are out of line too much,
it would then crack it, wouldn't it? That is a possibility.
So we've just got to hope that we've...
..got the right preparation. Now you tell me!
Just put a little bit of pressure on me, haven't you?
I'm just saying that this isn't plain sailing, this is
a very skilful job. If it really doesn't go, stop. OK.
Cos then we could pull it back out. Yeah.
Careful. Yeah, yeah, I am watching.
Can I just...? Can I just...?
Is that all right? I'm actually seeing. I'm just checking.
It is a little bit... Off? Off, yeah.
So what we could do is knock it back out, yeah?
One of them. OK.
There we are. Thanks, Steve.
A quick job with a file should sort that out.
Have you got the pin? Course I have.
Yep.
It's going.
It's come through. There we are.
And you can see it coming out at, like, an angle.
We've actually sort of used the pin as a spring almost
to pull the two bits together. Pull them together.
That's incredible. What are you trying to do, break it?
No, no. It's not coming off.
What you're going to do is chop off the ends. Yeah,
we'll cut those down and then darken them up.
OK. Oh, well done. So you don't see it. Yeah.
I look forward to seeing that. No, well done. It's nice.
Thank you.
With Jane due back any moment,
Will is finishing the repairs to the smoker's stand.
He's just waiting for Steve to give him a ring. Or three.
Hopefully,
by the time I've buffed this up,
if Steve has finished the brass rings,
he'll be putting those finishing touches, the cherry on the top,
and we can hand it back to Jane.
Here they are. Yes! I'll push those in.
They look absolutely amazing, Steve.
Would you like to tuck them in?
Go on, Steve.
I'll hold it to make sure it doesn't move. Ready? Yeah.
Oh.
Ow. OK...
This is broken.
How did you manage to do that?
WILL LAUGHS
Don't start, Steve, please.
Take that out, I'll turn it off
while you glue it. There you go.
It's really annoying.
HE LAUGHS
I didn't take into account
the fact that the grain of the wood is running this way.
So this is actually going to be quite a weak point here.
So we've been tapping it too hard,
and it's broken.
Steve's gone back over to his bench.
He's making the brass hoops slightly narrower
so they'll fit a lot better.
And in the meantime, I've got to find some glue.
They'll probably be too loose now.
Hopefully, that's the right size now.
So I'm using a really speedy glue.
Are you having to hold it? Yeah, I'm having to hold it,
clamp it with my hands. Can I put the one in here?
I'll put this one in, Steve, cos I don't trust you to touch anything.
Not on this... OK! I know. STEVE LAUGHS
There you go. Good.
If you want something done right the first time...
Stop it. ..don't ask Steve.
THEY LAUGH No, I'm joking.
With the family heirloom
finally back in one piece,
it's almost time to hand it back to owner Jane.
Really, the smoker's stand, in essence, it's just wood.
But to me, it's a lot more than just wood.
It was always there.
It was something that your grandparents had actually touched
and used.
So to me, it's not just piece of wood,
it's a piece of my childhood.
Hello. Hello. Nice to see you again.
And you, yes.
So... HE CHUCKLES
It's a bit of a giveaway, the fact that it's standing upright.
Yes. Shall we take a look?
Yes, please.
Oh, wow.
That is fantastic.
It looks absolutely wonderful.
Thank you so much.
It's beautiful.
I'm speechless. Thank you so much.
I don't think it's ever looked good.
Never.
So if I show you the top,
turned out that you're actually missing three
of the brass hoops here.
Oh, right! And our in-house wizard, Steve,
was able to make some new ones.
And the leg, look at the bottom. Yep.
You can't even see where it was, cos there was a big hole
and a gap there. Yeah. You're a genius.
It brings back some lovely, lovely memories.
It really does.
And over the last week, when I've been thinking about them,
those memories have been rolling down my face a little bit.
Really? Yeah, yeah.
So how do you think your grandfather would feel if he could see it
on its three legs now? He would be amazed, absolutely amazed.
And he'd probably have it filled with pipes already.
THEY LAUGH
It's over to you to treasure for many more years to come.
And I will do. Thank you so much.
Thanks for coming down. Thank you.
Thanks, bye-bye. Bye-bye.
During the last week, I've been thinking about the smoker's stand.
And it made me quite emotional and quite tearful at times.
I can't believe how beautiful it looks.
And I think both my grandma and grandad would be really proud
that it looks like it does now and that it's been mended.
Suzie is making headway with the leather-work
for the leaf chair.
The seams are sewn, the excess leather has been trimmed.
Now she's calling on the upholstery skills of Sonnaz
to help piece together the three separate sections.
So... This is the exciting bit. Yes.
I'm actually going to start sewing from here because this section
is far too thick... Right. ..for this machine to go through.
OK. So I'll finish it off by hand. OK.
This width of the foot here
is what I'm going to line up to the turn. Yep.
So as I'm going along, I'm just going to keep pulling it.
OK. And if you feel like I'm pulling too much,
just tell me, "Stop." OK. Safe word - stop. OK.
Cool. LAUGHS: OK.
So this is the face stitch, which is -
just before you start -
the most crucial stitch.
It's going to help form the spine.
Yeah. But also it's very visible.
So the goal is to...
..to make sure it looks really beautiful,
and I'm going to go really, really slow. OK.
Every stitch counts, doesn't it?
Yeah, I think we'll just go in incremental stages, and then...
..reposition... Every now and then.
That line looks amazing. Does it? Yeah.
Cos you can see it, I can't. No, you keep going.
It looks great.
That's why I need your eyes. Yeah.
Great! Yes! All right.
Shall I pull it? Let's pull this puppy up. Yep.
Oh, look at that! Oh!
That was lucky.
End of the bobbin.
I could have swore... How lucky was that? That was a full bobbin
that I had on. That's so lucky.
Could you imagine if that was somewhere in the middle?
Tears. No, I would have been quite upset. Absolutely.
That's upholstery gods watching. Thank God. Yeah.
Now Hercules has been reunited with his broken club,
Matt is striving to make the join as seamless as possible.
So we've cut the pins off
flat with the surface, so that they're a nice snug fit.
So I've just got to file back the last of the raised surface
so it's really nice and flush with the original,
and then I have a
patinating solution that will darken the surface and hopefully make
those heads invisible.
Patinating solution is a mix of phosphoric and tannic acids
which act on shiny new metal to give it an aged appearance.
It starts off white, but it dries purply black.
Should match in with the rest of Hercules.
It's changing colour already. It works really quickly.
And once we've got some wax over that,
it should be a really nice repair.
I mean, you've still got some of the evidence of the damage,
but that's part of the object's history.
Should be good for another 150 years now.
Looking good. Are you finished?
Yeah, done.
Cracking job.
The break was so perfect, it just got back together.
Brilliant.
Buffed to perfection,
all that remains is to return Hercules to the Wiltshire community,
where Heritage Society secretary Liz is awaiting the finished result.
Oh, we wanted to get Hercules restored because he's the only thing
left of the beam engine from Bitham Mill.
It will be a reminder for the people of Westbury of the legacy
of the cloth mills in the town.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what he looks like.
Hello. Are you all right? Good morning.
Word has spread about the strong man's restoration,
and a crowd is gathering to witness his return.
Among them is Sue Robinson, the daughter of former factory
employee Jack Ingram.
My father started working at the mill in 1936.
He was the maintenance engineer.
After Laverton's closed down in 1969,
he rescued Hercules because I think he was going to go for scrap.
He'd be thrilled to bits that,
you know, that he was being properly looked after.
Right, let's see what he looks like.
Oh, there he is. Oh, wow!
You can't see where it was broken, can you? No.
You can't see a join at all.
Oh, fantastic job.
Good as new. Back to one piece now.
Isn't that...? That is really good.
Well done.
Great!
What do you think, Sue?
I think he's brilliant. He's absolutely amazing. Yeah.
I think we were a little bit concerned how the repair
would actually look.
But he's as good as new, and we're really pleased about that.
He looks absolutely brilliant.
I'm really, really pleased.
I can come look at him at any time,
and be reminded of my dad.
Well, to have Hercules back, repaired, is really wonderful.
It gives us a lovely...
..piece of art to display in the Heritage Centre.
And now that he's back,
we're going to have to look after him very carefully. Absolutely.
Back at the workshop,
Suzie and Sonnaz have carefully cut out the challenging leather pattern
for the leaf chair
and are moulding it into shape.
Now Suzie needs to punch holes into the leather
so it can be attached to the metal frame.
I've turned the leather over and marked the spots where I need
to punch holes for the lacing that's actually going to hold the leather
on to the frame of the chair.
It is at a point like this, as with any item
that we're working on, that you've put so much into checking,
triple checking, quadruple checking that everything's right,
that if you slip up at this stage of the game,
that would be a disaster.
So here goes.
And there's the hole.
So now I'm going to put some of the eyelets in.
And what I have is this cylinder,
and this sits into this little channel here,
and then we push down the leather around that eyelet
so that the tip of this tool goes down, in there.
As I hit it, it's going to flange the male part
of that eyelet around that disc that I just put on there.
And there we have the eyelet.
I think that looks rather beautiful, and that's
going to be all the way around.
It's just really going to
highlight the whole style of this chair.
That's three done. I've got about 97 more to do.
So I'd better get on with it.
Dozens of holes and many metres of leather lacing later,
the end is finally in sight.
Just tidy off the ends and...
..I think we're finished.
This tattered and torn 50-year-old chair had been idle and empty
for the last decade.
Today, its original owner Matilda, Nonna as she's known to her family,
has come to the Repair Shop with son-in-law Jeff and grandson Carl
to collect their treasured design classic.
Hello. Oh, my...
Come on in. It's lovely to see you. Come in, Come in.
So, it's been a little while since you've been without your chair.
JEFF: Yeah, it has. Yes.
And, Nonna, you were the original owner of the chair.
Yeah, I was.
What attracted you to the chair?
Well, it was unusual, something we'd never seen.
We used to go to Wales nearly every week,
and we saw it and we thought, "Oh, we'll have that."
But then our house was full of unusual things.
Was it? Oh, really? Oh, yeah.
And so, Carl, how much have you missed this chair? Quite a bit.
I haven't been able to use it for the last ten years,
so I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks.
Yeah, I'm excited to see what it looks like,
if it looks like it was before.
OK. We ready? Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Oh, it's gorgeous. Look at that.
Oh, it's beautiful, it's lovely. What do you think, Nonna?
It's absolutely beautiful.
It's so nice.
Oh, love the leather. It's really nice. It's really nice.
I'm sorry I can't have it in my house!
THEY LAUGH
I'm pleased that you have it and you enjoy it. Thanks, Nonna.
Yeah, that's really nice. Yeah, it's beautiful.
Do you want to sit in it, Nonna?
Oh, yeah. I don't know whether I can get there.
There you are. It's like the old days. Oh, it's wonderful.
Yeah. It's lovely, really nice.
Is it comfy? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
It's very comfy. I can stay here now!
Does it remind you of sitting in it all those...? Oh, yeah, yeah.
In fact, it looks nicer than I thought it would.
Oh, well done! Great news!
I didn't know, I was a bit apprehensive.
I thought it can't look as nice as it was before.
Yeah, of course. But it's very nice.
You've done really a good job.
I'm really very impressed. Thank you very much.
It's beautiful. I hope you enjoy it. I will.
I know we did.
Well, it was...
..it was a wonderful, wonderful chair to work on.
It's in my heart forever now.
I'm glad you enjoyed making it as well. I did.
I really, really did.
Yeah, I learned a lot.
It's really lovely. Thank you, Nonna.
Yeah, I'm really, really pleased with the way it looks.
Can't wait to get in it.
A lot better than I expected as well.
Well, I don't know. I didn't expect anything,
I just wait and see what it looks like, but it's beautiful.
Beautifully done, and I'm glad it's like that.
I hope it will serve you. A good thing for many years!
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Take care of it! I will. Yeah.
Join us next time in the Repair Shop
as the doors open to more cherished items...
Gosh, that's just amazing.
..for the team to rescue and bring back to life.