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π New uploads, endless stories, pure emotion!
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Short filmTranscript
00:00A workshop full of wonders.
00:03I heard the word watch.
00:06Home to masters of time-honored crafts.
00:09Hopefully we've got this in the nick of time.
00:11Together repairing treasured pieces of the past.
00:15Oh no.
00:17Wow look at that.
00:18Wow look at that.
00:21Quite proud of that.
00:22And unlocking their stories.
00:25I'm completely blown away by this.
00:27Oh dear.
00:28Bringing the broken.
00:32Oh I'm desperate to take a look.
00:34Back to life.
00:37Oh fantastic.
00:42Oh my.
00:43Wow this is amazing.
00:47Welcome to the repair shop.
00:58Oh dear.
01:00Makes a difference when it's not raining.
01:02I know this is beautiful isn't it?
01:03It is.
01:10First to arrive at the barn from Essex, Thomas and his granddad Roger.
01:16Bearing a pocket treasure from the second world war.
01:19Come in, take a seat, get yourself comfy.
01:25So what have you brought in for us then?
01:26This is my grand's diary from 1942 during the occupation of Guernsey by the German forces.
01:36Wow.
01:36When was it occupied?
01:381940.
01:40Oh really early on.
01:41Yeah.
01:44The Crown's Channel Islands, just off the coast of France, had their costly British military defenses withdrawn,
01:52just nine months into the war, while half of Guernsey's residents were evacuated.
02:00The families who stayed lived under authoritarian Nazi rule for the next five years, enduring curfews and food rationing.
02:12What was your man's name?
02:14Lillian Maude Lepage.
02:17It must have been absolutely terrifying for her.
02:20It really was.
02:21I think for her it was a bit of a form of therapy.
02:24Like if you come in, there's different bits where she talks about,
02:28Oh, it's falling apart.
02:30Goodness me.
02:31On the 8th of June, she says, rotten news for us over here.
02:36We've been told to give in our wireless sets because the Germans think that the news is too good for us.
02:42So then they took all the radios away so they were completely isolated and wouldn't know about how the war's getting on.
02:48And then she talks about like her son who went to war.
02:51I dreamt of Eric last night.
02:53He was home from leave.
02:54I woke up and we were still in this rotten mess.
02:58I feel so fed up.
03:00When will this all end?
03:01So she must have been worrying if he's okay.
03:04Yes, throughout that diary, you hear, we have no food.
03:08God.
03:10They were ill.
03:11They caught all sorts of things.
03:12My grandfather, he and the owner of the boat that he was fishing on, planned an escape.
03:20Wow.
03:21They saved little bits of fuel and they would go down to the boat after curfew and gradually top it up.
03:29That's risky.
03:30Wow.
03:31They managed to get out without the engine started.
03:33No way.
03:34And then when they got out, they turned it back on and then they made it through.
03:38Really?
03:38Yeah, got to England.
03:41So the boat that they actually escaped on, that is now sat outside the Occupation Museum in Guernsey.
03:47No.
03:48Did they settle in England?
03:49Yes.
03:50In Wickham Bishops in Essex, where I was brought up as well.
03:55She was a wonderful woman.
03:56She was lovely.
03:58Gran died when I was just nine.
04:01Saddest day of my life, I think, when she died.
04:04So when did you discover the little book?
04:07I got this after my mum died in 2021.
04:12When I started looking through it, I ended up in tears because of what they had to go through.
04:18This must make you sort of think how important it is to keep telling these stories.
04:24A hundred percent.
04:24So you grow up knowing about the war, but you don't really know about Guernsey being occupied.
04:30So then it kind of shone a light.
04:32Yeah.
04:33So what would you like me to do to it?
04:36Put it back into a decent condition in one piece.
04:41It has been handled a lot.
04:42It being in a condition where you can actually hold it without it falling apart would be really nice.
04:48The things this diary's been through, but it's still here.
04:51Incredible.
04:51She was an incredible woman.
04:53Thank you, guys.
04:54Thank you very much.
05:01Well, it may be a very small book, but it's certainly very powerful, isn't it?
05:06It is.
05:06I can't wait to see what you do with it.
05:08Thank you, Tom.
05:20Never expected to have something like this in my hands.
05:23The damage, basically, I can see why it's happened, because the diary is just a paper book.
05:31It was never designed, really, to have this longevity.
05:37It's a shame it's missing its spine along here.
05:40Currently, it's hanging by a thread.
05:43There's some loose pages, which I have to sort out as its position.
05:46Yeah, I mean, it's very, very loose.
05:49And nerd fact on bookbinding, French Catch Stitch.
05:53Love seeing that.
05:54And that's the exact sewing I'm going to be using on this little book.
05:58But the first thing I'm going to do is dismantle the book.
06:01The barn's next project will need the combined expertise and metals of Dom and Brendan.
06:18You're looking very bright and colourful today.
06:20I always like to bring some brightness to the repair shop.
06:22Well, at least one of us is.
06:26A decaying family keepsake belonging to Jenny from County Tyrone,
06:31Northern Ireland.
06:33Hi, welcome to the barn.
06:35Hi. Hello.
06:36What have you brought in for us?
06:38I've brought in my grandmother's old railway lamp.
06:42Wow.
06:44Oh, look at that.
06:46Oh, dear. That would fail an M.A.T., wouldn't it?
06:49I think that's it all.
06:51Why did your grandmother have this?
06:53She was the last stationmaster in Dunhamana Railway Station in Northern Ireland,
06:59which closed in 1955.
07:01What was your grandmother's name?
07:02Margaret.
07:03And she was a stationmaster.
07:04What did that mean?
07:05She had to look after the trains coming.
07:07She also was in charge of the goods that would have come in,
07:09because it was a passenger and a goods train.
07:11OK.
07:12Was that quite unusual at that time?
07:14Previous stationmasters had all been men, as far as I'm aware, on our station.
07:18So, yes, it was, which is the reason why we were very proud of her.
07:21Rightly so.
07:22What did your grandmother use this lamp for?
07:25She would use it to go down to the crossing and close the crossing
07:28that cars didn't cross over the railway line.
07:30And then there was the different colours of glass that she could change.
07:33You know, she can turn this around to alert the driver
07:36whether it's safe for the train to come through or not.
07:39Did she live at the train station?
07:40She did.
07:41She lived at the train station.
07:42And then she had her dad there.
07:44My grandmother then got the opportunity to buy the premises.
07:48And then we lived there, that's where I grew up as well, with my grandma.
07:52So you lived at the train station?
07:53Yes, yes.
07:54In the station?
07:54Yes, we were the railway children.
07:57Wow!
07:58That must have been so much more, slightly dangerous, but so much fun being a kid.
08:01Yeah, it was brilliant.
08:02So there was no trains running while I was a child there,
08:05but it was just, the line was still there and the railway bridges.
08:08It was just fun.
08:10I bought a new home there about five years ago,
08:12so I live on one side of the platform and my mum and dad live on the other.
08:15That's incredible, isn't that brilliant?
08:17What was your grandmother like?
08:19She was a very kind person, very strong-minded, strong in body,
08:23a very hard-working lady.
08:24She was just that sort of head of the house,
08:26that making sure everyone was okay and nice home Irish cooking.
08:30I actually shared a bedroom with her, and I was a sleepwalker.
08:33So it seems she used to get out of bed and steer me back into my bed.
08:37Oh, bless you, Harold.
08:38Maybe that's why they put me with her, because I was a walker.
08:40But no, her and I were extremely close. We were.
08:43I see. So it's got like a paraffin heater inside,
08:46like a burner inside, essentially, so there'd be an open flame in there.
08:49Yes.
08:49With that reflector bouncing the light out of this lens.
08:52Yeah.
08:53And these coloured lenses would, I guess, sit in there inside.
08:56Yeah.
08:56It's a lovely thing.
08:57It's beautiful.
08:58What are you hoping we're able to do to the lamp?
09:01I would just love to get it back to a more preserved state,
09:05that we could possibly light it again. It would be lovely.
09:07My son is a great train enthusiast, so then I can pass it on to him when I'm gone,
09:12and hopefully he'll pass it down again and just keep that railway memory in our family.
09:16Yeah.
09:17We'll have to do our prayers, won't we?
09:19Well, we'll try our best, yes.
09:20Perfect. Thank you very much.
09:22Thanks a lot.
09:23Okay, bye.
09:24Bye.
09:28See what, the more I look at this, the more I worry.
09:39The worse it gets.
09:40I know.
09:47It's a clever thing, it's like a mini lighthouse.
09:49It is.
09:50I think the whole unit has to come apart.
09:52Yep, definitely.
09:53Basically.
09:54Oh, that comes out really easily.
09:56Oh dear, that's a bit rotten down the bottom.
09:58Oh, no.
09:59And that's the bit that holds the glass.
10:01I think that needs to be replaced.
10:03I think you'd be better off rolling a new one.
10:05Yeah.
10:06That burner looks like it's in really good condition.
10:08I think that mirror will polish up a bit.
10:11That is paint, isn't it?
10:14That is a beautiful, deep burgundy colour.
10:17I think it would look amazing to paint it back that colour.
10:19The base needs to come off, probably make a new base.
10:22Yeah.
10:22We're going to have to strip all of this rust off.
10:25Yeah.
10:25And then we can really see what state the rest of the frame is in.
10:29Okay.
10:49It is very, very thin steel, so I need to be as gentle as possible.
10:55I've chosen to use electrolysis.
10:57It is a very efficient way of removing rust from steel parts.
11:02I've got a very basic setup here using a car battery charger.
11:06That's going to give me the current that I need.
11:08First thing I'm going to do is fill this up with some water,
11:12with some cleaning salts in it, and that is going to create an electrolyte.
11:17Once I've got my battery charger connected, that's going to provide the current that we need,
11:20and it's going to pass from the negative, the blue wire, which is connected to the part,
11:25to these steel bars, which are the positive.
11:28That's going to force the rust off of the parts.
11:31And all I'll be left with is the solid steel.
11:34How much of that, I don't know.
11:36Bookbinder Chris is ensuring all the entries in the tattered diary from Occupy Guernsey
11:49can be preserved intact.
11:51I've dismantled the book and have guarded all the backs of the sections.
11:55Garden entails wrapping a piece of repair tissue around the outside of the section.
12:01So I've got one section left to do. It gives an immense amount of strength,
12:09and also gives a bit of a barrier between the new glue and the old paper.
12:14This repair tissue has got these long sort of fibres,
12:17which, when you paste them, sort of blends in with the paper.
12:22And to apply it, I'm going to use some paste.
12:25Just teasing over the other side.
12:46The one advantage of sausage fingers, they're great for pinching paper flat.
12:51So that's all the pages sorted.
12:53I just need to leave them to dry.
12:56When everything's dry, I can sew the sections together.
13:04What's this? This is pretty.
13:05This is a board that I use when I'm punching out various different shapes through leather,
13:09and it protects the tool from being damaged.
13:11It's a work of art.
13:13Well, I've never looked at it that way.
13:14It looks like the universe and stars.
13:17And those are little bits of card that are just embedded in the rubber.
13:21Ooh, we should keep that forever.
13:23Yeah.
13:31Originally, the book was sewn together with a French catch stitch, which is fantastic,
13:36but only secured in the middle.
13:38So what I'm going to be doing, to add some extra strength, I'm going to include some tapes.
13:44These are going to add huge amounts of strength to the book.
13:48The tapes will link the back and the front boards together.
13:51And I'm doing a French catch stitch, and I'm going down to the bottom loop through that and up, and that creates this catch, which links the sections together there.
14:08This is a really, really nice process, because this is where you can start reading the book, and just, oh, they've got rhubarb.
14:18How nice.
14:20Thursday, 7th of May, 1942.
14:23Weather, oh, weather dull.
14:26It's funny how the British, it's all about the weather, which I love.
14:30It's the mundane of the day-to-day living with so many layers, and this is exactly what this book is.
14:38It's really historically important, and that does give me a huge thrill.
14:42The parts of the station lamp that have been undergoing rust removal are now ready for inspection.
14:55The electrolysis has done its job.
14:58Good news is, the main body of the lamp is actually okay.
15:01Good, excellent.
15:02Yeah.
15:03But this lid, I mean, this is in a bit of a state, isn't it?
15:06That hasn't fared well.
15:07When you look at it up through the light...
15:09It looks like a tea bag.
15:10Oh, dear.
15:12There's no repairing that.
15:13We have to make that bit again, aren't we?
15:15Not only have we got the original repairs that we knew we had, remaking that, and remaking a new base,
15:21we've now also got to remake...
15:25Most of that.
15:26Yeah, most of this, yeah.
15:27Well, we'd better get this apart, then.
15:37I think that'll come off there now.
15:58Between myself and Brenton, we've come up with a solution
16:01to make this new chimney piece.
16:03I've got some epoxy putty, which I'm kneading together.
16:06It's basically two parts, and I'm going to lay this over the top.
16:11It's going to mold into the shape of one of these petals, then dry and set and go hard.
16:16I'm going to do the same on the inside.
16:18Once they're removed, I'll have two pieces, and we'll be able to use those as tools
16:22to actually press a new chimney piece.
16:26Whether or not this is going to work at the moment, I'm not sure.
16:30I just need to leave that now to sit, go off, go nice and hard,
16:35then I can remove them and try and press them into the new panel and see what happens.
16:39Next to arrive with their leader, Helen, are Cub Scouts Lara, Ollie and Gwil.
16:57They've brought along the fierce-looking centrepiece of their weekly pack night.
17:02Hello, welcome. Hello.
17:05Come in, come in.
17:08Bringing it back to life will need Will and Kirsten to do their best.
17:13Hello. Nice to see you all.
17:16Hi. What do you have here?
17:17We have wolf's head, which is used by our Cub Pack.
17:21We think it's from the 1950s when our troop was re-founded.
17:23It was re-founded 70 years ago this year.
17:26It's been used, as you can see, a lot.
17:28So what's it used for?
17:30It's used for opening pack nights with something called Grand Howl.
17:34The wolf's head's held by one of the cubs and the other cubs form a circle
17:37and one of them leads Grand Howl.
17:39I would love to see that.
17:40I'd love to hear it.
17:43Okay.
17:44Ah, Kayla, we will do our best.
17:49Cubs, do your best.
17:51We will do our best.
17:54Love it. There you go. Sounds good to me.
17:57How does it feel when you're holding it?
17:58It's very old, so you don't really want to drop it.
18:04It's quite special because you know that loads and loads of other people have held up.
18:11I think they were more prevalent in the early days of cubs.
18:14And there are very few, I think, now who still have them.
18:16So how come that you've chosen now to get it fixed?
18:18Because we can take it on that, the 70th anniversary of celebratory camp.
18:22And have the campfire in the evening, whatever.
18:24Every section will have their banner up. We have our wolf's head.
18:27Would it be nice to have it all restored for that then?
18:29Yeah.
18:30Yeah.
18:30I mean, obviously, the ears are a bit tragic.
18:32Yeah.
18:33And there's paint missing and it's covered in cracks.
18:35So what would you like Kishin to do for you?
18:37What do we think? Do we want it to look brand new?
18:38We want to keep some of the love, don't we?
18:41It's a good answer.
18:43Yeah.
18:43If we had it repaired, then it would last a lot longer and so many more cubs could hold it.
18:52It's been lovely to meet you all and hear all about the cubs.
18:55This is a first for us, I'll have to say. Very exciting though.
19:00There you go.
19:01Goodness, I feel the weight of responsibility.
19:05Well, let's in safe hands.
19:07And we'll see you very soon.
19:08Thank you very much for having us.
19:09Thank you. Bye-bye.
19:15This is really cool. I've never seen something like this before.
19:18It's really lovely, isn't it?
19:20Well, you've got your work cut out with the ears.
19:23I mean, they look pretty bad, don't they?
19:24And the teeth.
19:25And the teeth and the nose.
19:26I mean, this looks like it's all coming to pieces.
19:28So maybe I could re-whip that.
19:30Do you want to do that then before I do that?
19:31Yes, please. I can't wait to get my hands on that.
19:33Yes.
19:34Finally.
19:34Great.
19:35See you later.
19:44The stick looks well used.
19:46I mean, it's been brought out once a week for about 70 years now.
19:50And you can really see where hands have been holding on to this whipping here.
19:54It's started to break away.
19:55Well, that's all the whipping off.
20:08I'm going to use this new twine here to re-whip this,
20:11and I can get this out of the kitchen.
20:20Dom has made a mould for the station lamp's replacement chimney and it's ready to be put
20:26to the test.
20:27This is mark one.
20:29The very first go of trying to make a new chimney.
20:32Brenton, try and give it a squeeze and let's see what happens.
20:36Go on, more than that.
20:38Hang on.
20:39The bottom one sneaked out.
20:40Yeah.
20:41Okay, that's it.
20:46Oh my goodness, look at that.
20:49That's just what we want.
20:50We've just got to make 10 more of those.
20:52That's it.
20:52Wow.
20:53That is, look.
20:54Wow.
20:55Now we know the tooling works in principle.
20:58We just need to take our time and try and get this all nice and even.
21:02This is good.
21:03We're getting there.
21:06Okay.
21:06Yeah.
21:20This is the last one.
21:21Here we go.
21:25Look at that.
21:25Wow.
21:26That's amazing.
21:27Well done.
21:28All we need to do now is just make that little dimple in the middle.
21:31Yep.
21:31Which will be quite straightforward.
21:32Yep.
21:33And look, new chimney.
21:35Done.
21:36All right.
21:46Oh.
21:49How are you getting on?
21:50Well, I've changed the whipping, so that's nice and fresh.
21:52That looks lovely.
21:53I'm going to make a stand for this.
21:55Okay, great.
21:56Whilst you have the tricky task of fixing the head.
21:59It's going to be quite tricky, but thank you.
22:01Leave it with me, Will.
22:02Have fun.
22:02Thanks.
22:07When I first saw this I thought perhaps it was wood or plaster, but in fact I think it's probably some kind of a plastic.
22:16The thing that stands out initially are all of these cracks, but I think it's going to be almost impossible to try and get rid of all of these because I would need to fill them and then paint over them.
22:32I may do some of the worst cracks, but I want to keep the character of the piece.
22:38Clearly these ears have been knocked off at some point and someone's had a good go at sticking them back.
22:46And I think rather than taking them off and possibly causing more damage, I'm going to leave them and just try and improve the look of these joins.
23:01This picked up quite a lot of dust and dirt.
23:04So I'm going to carefully work my way over the entire surface and I can then start thinking about filling these areas.
23:14Chris has the pages of the Guernsey Occupation Diaries sawed up and can now start on the outer covers, which carry more of its precious handwritten entries.
23:34So I'm now turning my attention to the front and the back boards and on the front there would be a spine piece that would be continually joined the front and back together.
23:46Because there's nothing there, that's what I need to reinstate.
23:49And to do that, I need to lift back the original paper so I can get all my new paper, mull, everything underneath the original.
23:58So in the end, it doesn't look like much has been done.
24:01I can see that the board is made of straw, this is clumpy, so if I hit a bit of straw, it could deflect my knife, which then will come through the end paper and it'll just be the worst possible result.
24:25It's quite tense actually, it's very tense.
24:31There's a sort of a fine balance between too little I'll come through the paper, too much and it'll become lumpy.
24:40You're treading a tightrope all the way along.
24:43I think I've done it.
24:56I can breathe again.
24:59I've got the front cover to do.
25:01I know people say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but in this case I do want people to judge it because I want it to look just really right.
25:13I've made a new glass holder and this goes inside the lantern and should revolve so you can change the colour of the light depending on what signal you want to make.
25:31And the old one was completely rusted and I've used that as a pattern to make the new one and I have to make this into a tubular shape using this device which is called a slip roller.
25:43When you put the metal in it, the rollers push it through and the back roller is slightly higher and that pushes the metal up evenly.
25:53Each time I put it through I'm adjusting it.
25:56This is looking really good.
26:07Another couple of rolls and this will be ready to go into the main body of the lamp.
26:11The covers of the diary are now ready for the replacement spine which Chris must create from scratch.
26:31It's really important I make a spine that is as authentic as possible.
26:37Something that Lillian would have recognised.
26:40That's why I'm using this textured paper and it's a really, really good match.
26:44The problem with old books, no matter what, they've obviously moved over a period.
26:50So it's a bit more tricky creating the spine piece and getting it into place because it's moved, it's not straight.
26:58So there's an added element of trickiness.
27:09I'm trying to manipulate the paper into place and then I can see that's just a tiny bit out.
27:20Perfect, that's a relief.
27:27So now I can glue the backboard into place.
27:39Yep, fits like a glove.
27:41So when I've reattached the text and it's all dry I can start blending and getting all these scuffs away
27:47so that when I hand it back to Roger and Thomas it's going to look really authentic.
27:58Kirsten has begun filling the cracks on the Cubscote ceremonial wolf head.
28:03I've gone for a two-part epoxy modelling material that I can blend in really nicely to the areas of loss.
28:15I'm going to use the same material on the ears.
28:18Now I'm going to try and see if I can blend those two edges together
28:22and make it look a bit less unsightly.
28:28I'm quite often asked what my favourite tool is.
28:33Probably my most useful tool are my hands.
28:38And for something like this, there's nothing better than using touch to feel how this is blending
28:48and to get that really lovely, smooth line.
28:52Is this everything now?
29:07I think it's all here.
29:08Finally?
29:09Yep.
29:10It's quite nice seeing everything laid out on the bench.
29:12All the new pieces that we've made, the original bits.
29:15Is it about time to stick it back together?
29:17Definitely.
29:18Put some flux on there.
29:19This will help the solders to flow.
29:21Nice.
29:21Let's see how it goes.
29:24So we've got a nice even heat on there.
29:26This is when we find out how well everything fits.
29:29When the new pieces start joining the old.
29:33Chimney time.
29:37I'm just going to tack this in place and then we'll put the handle on.
29:42Gently bent.
29:43Oh, that's nice.
29:44Yeah.
29:45While Dom and Brenton continue to reassemble the lantern...
29:50Can I let go?
29:51No.
29:51No.
29:52My hands are hurting.
29:57Chris is on to his final touch-ups of the Guernsey Occupation Diary.
30:02I'm going around the edges using watercolour and I used watercolour on the spine.
30:08It gives a very subtle feel.
30:10It gives a washed out feel.
30:11It gives age.
30:12So instead of doing a brush stroke on it, I'm just tapping the brush down and then wiping
30:19it off with my finger.
30:20You get a smudged effect, which seems to blend in far better than actually painting it.
30:25So once I've finished blending in the colours, I'm going to give it a bit of a wax just to
30:31protect the paper, and then it's ready to be handed back to Audrey and Thomas.
30:35Detailing life under Nazi rule during the Second World War, the fragile state of this pocketbook
30:47threatened to set its stories adrift.
30:50Back to see if Lillian's memories can live on, her grandson Roger and his own grandson Thomas.
31:00Hi.
31:01Hello.
31:02Hello.
31:03Come on in.
31:04Take a seat.
31:05How are you guys?
31:06Very well.
31:07Roger, how are you feeling about getting the chance to see your precious book again?
31:11I'm tingling with excitement.
31:12It wasn't looking its best, was it?
31:14No.
31:15Yeah, no spine.
31:16Pages falling apart.
31:17So yeah, really looking forward to seeing it in one piece.
31:20Would you like to take a look?
31:21Yes, please.
31:22Yeah.
31:23Go on then, Chris.
31:24Oh.
31:25Oh.
31:26Oh.
31:27Oh.
31:28Oh.
31:29Oh.
31:30Oh my.
31:31That's...
31:32That's crazy.
31:33That's...
31:34That's crazy.
31:57Special, isn't it?
31:58It's just making me think of me crying.
31:59Sorry.
32:00It's beautiful.
32:01Yeah, it is.
32:02Thank you, Chris.
32:03No, it's...
32:04It is beautiful.
32:05It's taken me back years.
32:06Seeing him have that connection with his grandparents, the way that I know I've got the connection with him, makes it extra special.
32:24It doesn't look new, it looks like it's matched in. It's incredible work.
32:27Like it's just...
32:28Like it's just come out of Lillian's pocket.
32:30That's it.
32:31Exactly.
32:32It's really lovely and I'm so grateful.
32:36So it's yours to take away.
32:38Brilliant.
32:39Thank you very much.
32:40Thank you so much.
32:41Really appreciate it.
32:42You're welcome.
32:43Hope you enjoy it.
32:44Thank you very much.
32:49Well done.
32:50Absolutely brilliant.
32:51It's a surreal feeling having the diary in my hands now.
32:54I can actually hold it like Lillian held it and open it to the pages where she'd have written on.
33:00So for me, it just brings a deeper sense of connection to her and to the diary.
33:08It was absolutely wonderful.
33:11The tingle in me was unbelievable.
33:14The story of Lillian is an incredible one and one that I'm happy others are going to hear as well.
33:28With one item on its way home, ready for the next repair, expert in plastics and toy restoration,
33:37Charlotte Abbott.
33:39Have you always restored toys?
33:40I actually used to build wind turbines.
33:43Wind turbines?
33:44Really?
33:45Yeah.
33:46Well, like the big ones?
33:47Yeah.
33:48Audreyja from Birmingham has brought along a major renovation project from her childhood days.
33:56Hi there.
33:57Hi.
33:58Come in, come in.
33:59Oh, look at this.
34:01Yeah.
34:02Seeing better days.
34:03The first angle, it didn't look too bad.
34:05I was like, this looks perfectly fine.
34:07I tricked you, didn't I?
34:08Yeah.
34:09It's like a little meteorite that's gone through the roof or something.
34:11Yeah.
34:12So this doll's house was gifted to my sister on her sixth birthday.
34:16My parents gave it to her in 1986 before I was born to stem any jealousy or anything for what attention the baby might get.
34:25But actually, they needn't have because she was absolutely besotted with me, apparently, when I was born.
34:30She was like a second mum.
34:31What's your sister's name?
34:32Titipriya Reem, but we always called her Reem.
34:35I can imagine as a child, this must have been quite the gift.
34:38I mean, it's quite retro when you open up.
34:40The decor is kind of these yellows and browns.
34:43I remember my parents' carpet being a similar colour to that.
34:46The toys are kind of quite primitive compared to some of the stuff that you get now.
34:51Yeah.
34:52What's your earliest memory of this?
34:53Being told how to play with it because it was my sister's treasured possession and she was six and a half years older than me.
34:59So, you know, she would determine the way the play would go.
35:03But when we were playing with it together, it was more fun.
35:06The imagination, the story would get bigger and bigger.
35:08Sounds like you were really close.
35:10Yeah.
35:11Because of the age difference, she was very caring, very protective, quite bossy.
35:16As all big sisters are.
35:18Yeah.
35:19But then as I became a teenager, she was becoming a young adult and then we became really just like friends.
35:24There was nothing that we couldn't talk about.
35:26Yeah.
35:27So I take it this hasn't been played with for quite a few years?
35:29Well, when I kind of outgrew it, my mum stored it away in our loft.
35:33So it was pristine.
35:34And then when my daughter was born in 2017, Ahana, my sister wanted to gift it to her because she just adored her niece.
35:44They had a real closeness.
35:45When my sister would come to visit, they would play with it for ages.
35:48So Ahana became our kind of new bond in our sisterhood, I suppose.
35:52But sadly, we quite suddenly lost her in January 2020.
35:58I'm so sorry to hear that.
35:59And I was actually five months pregnant with my second daughter.
36:03And actually her middle name has the same meaning as my sister's name.
36:07So Reem means baby dear.
36:09And my daughter's called Urushi Diani and Diani means baby dear.
36:13So it was a little nod to my sister.
36:16Lovely.
36:17What happened to the roof?
36:19So my sister went to lift it up, but the handle snapped off.
36:23And then after that, something fell on it.
36:26And that was the biggest damage.
36:28And then after she passed away, we kind of kept it away.
36:31I kept all the damaged pieces.
36:34I think that's all of them.
36:36I don't remember any going missing.
36:38It is like an Easter egg, isn't it?
36:39Yeah.
36:40It's great that we've got especially this piece,
36:42because I think that would be quite hard to recreate if it was missing.
36:45It was, you know, a nostalgic relic of our childhood before.
36:49And I think my sister would be really proud and touched
36:54that we could fulfill what she wanted.
36:57Yeah.
36:58Which was to see her nieces playing with it as we used to.
37:02Leave it with us and we'll see you very soon.
37:04Thank you so much.
37:05Thanks a lot. Bye bye.
37:11Look at the state of that.
37:12Yeah.
37:13It's a bit of a hole, isn't it?
37:14A bit of a hole.
37:16It's good I've got the pieces.
37:17It's good you've got the pieces.
37:18Exactly.
37:19Right.
37:20If you grab that, I'll help you with the other box.
37:27It's really important that this repair is really robust and safe,
37:44so that Audreyja's two daughters can play with it.
37:47You know, there's a kind of catastrophic hole in the roof.
37:52There is a lot of damage here.
37:54And you can see that the plastic has faded.
37:56The roof actually has been a bit sun damaged.
37:59Plastic is quite a tricky material to glue.
38:01So ideally, I would actually like to chemically weld it together.
38:04So this is finding a solvent that will melt the edges of the plastic
38:08and melt those two edges together.
38:10One of my main concerns with this is as plastic gets older,
38:15it becomes less flexible, becomes more brittle.
38:18Sometimes because it's brittle, it needs some kind of reinforcement.
38:21I can't just rely on kind of sticking back together.
38:24It's a really small kind of thin piece of plastic.
38:27There's a really small surface area, so it won't be very strong.
38:29Normally, I can hide my work when I'm repairing plastic items.
38:34But here, the ceiling is the back of this.
38:38So there's no way that I can kind of hide any reinforcement.
38:42I don't want it to look kind of beautiful outside, but kind of raggedy on the inside or vice versa.
38:49Right now, I just need to put it back together like a jigsaw puzzle.
38:53And from there, I'll be able to formulate more of a plan of attack.
39:05I've not seen you wearing an apron before.
39:07Occasionally, I do wear an apron.
39:09And I obviously then need brush department, pen department.
39:13See, I don't load it with loads of stuff.
39:16Do you travel light?
39:17Yes.
39:18How many pens does a man need?
39:20There's always room for more.
39:22I see.
39:25As Will stains the stand he's made for the ceremonial wolf's head,
39:29Kirsten's onto the cosmetics of the beast itself.
39:34I've filled the areas around the ears and smoothed the fill so that it blends really nicely.
39:46And I'm now trying to blend in the fill with some retouching with an acrylic paint
39:56and a little bit of colour in there as well.
39:59It's more of a tint, really, than a heavy colour.
40:03The acrylic medium that I'm using gives quite a nice high shine.
40:10So I'm hoping that that will give the fill the same shine as the surface of the wolf's head once it's dried.
40:23To support the fragments of the doll's house roof,
40:26Charlotte's designed a supporting panel from matching plastic
40:30that will still look good from the inside.
40:34I've finished cutting out a support piece for the roof.
40:37I'm going to paint some of the plastic weld solution
40:40kind of down in these areas here
40:43and also on the roof piece
40:45and kind of hold it in place until that's melted together.
40:49You often think of welding as metal welding but you can weld plastic as well
40:53but it involves using chemicals that aren't particularly nice.
40:56So I'm just trying to soften the plastic so that it's nice and sticky when I put the piece in.
41:09This solution is really nice and thin so it looks nice and flows in all the draps.
41:26So anywhere where it's not quite joining like here, I can pour a little bit in and just let it dry.
41:33Yeah, the plastic's coming together there nicely.
41:57Most of the pieces are just broken on one plane but the dormer is broken on two.
42:01So just to give it that little bit extra support, I've just put some little pins in
42:05and I'm going to slide that into position and then start plastic welding it back together.
42:24Once that's secure, I can then start adding back in the other roof tiles
42:28and weld them to the support, weld them to each other
42:32and get that kind of a nice united piece of roof.
42:37It's really satisfying just slowly building it back together and making it nice and strong again.
42:43With repainting now underway, the final stop on Dom and Brenton's journey restoring the station lantern is within sight.
43:00The new top of the chimney that we've made has come out so well.
43:05Now it's primed and soldered in place.
43:07It is looking the part.
43:09Yeah.
43:10It's time for the top coat.
43:11I am quite confident that this maroon is very close to the colour that this was painted when Margaret was first using it.
43:19This has been a lot more of a challenge than I was first expecting.
43:23I don't know about you.
43:24Well, when we first saw it, I didn't think we could do this.
43:28Once all the glass is in place, I can't wait to see it.
43:35This rusting lantern once guided station master Margaret as she worked on the railway and provided signals to passing trains.
43:43Jenny is back, hoping the story of her inspirational grandmother can continue down the generations.
43:53Hi.
43:54Hi.
43:55Welcome back to the barn.
43:57How have you been?
43:58I've been good, good.
43:59But missing the lamp, I've actually been so excited to see it back again, back at home.
44:02It just means so much because I was so close to my grandmother and the station.
44:06It means a lot to you.
44:07It does.
44:09You ready to take a look?
44:10I am indeed, yeah.
44:11Come on, Brenton.
44:13Come on.
44:16Oh, my goodness.
44:24It's beautiful.
44:26Really, really lovely.
44:27Oh, my goodness.
44:28I can't believe it.
44:30Oh, I'm really afraid to touch it because you couldn't touch it before.
44:34There you go.
44:35Oh, my goodness.
44:38Wow.
44:39Wow.
44:40And can this turn?
44:41Yep.
44:43Oh, my goodness.
44:44Oh, my goodness.
44:46Oh, my goodness.
44:48Wow, guys.
44:49Thank you so, so much.
44:51It means so much to me.
44:53Oh.
44:54Did you ever think that you'd see the lamp looking like this?
44:58No.
44:59No.
45:00This is way better than what I expected.
45:01And I might actually put a little light on there so at night time it still lights up.
45:06We can actually light it now if you want.
45:07You are kidding.
45:08It actually works.
45:09Well, do you want to see?
45:10Oh, my goodness.
45:11Yes, please.
45:12Let me get the lights.
45:16Okay, so there's the matches.
45:17Wow.
45:18I'm shaking.
45:19Mm.
45:20There's the door.
45:21Oh, my goodness.
45:22I've never seen it lit.
45:23Never seen it lit.
45:24You want to try the different colours?
45:25Oh.
45:26There you go.
45:27There's the blue.
45:28Wow.
45:29There's your red.
45:30Doesn't that look glass?
45:31It's brilliant, isn't it?
45:32It is brilliant.
45:33Thanks to you both.
45:34An amazing job.
45:35Pleasure.
45:36You're welcome.
45:38Bye-bye.
45:39Bye.
45:40It symbolises my grandmother on good times and just a fantastic little station.
45:45It's amazing.
45:47Bye-bye.
45:48Bye.
45:49It symbolises my grandmother on good times and just a fantastic little station.
45:59I grew up in the house with my grandmother, so it's just so many fond memories of her,
46:04the strong, wonderful woman she was.
46:07Home is where the heart is and that's where this is going to be.
46:20The roof of the doll's house now repaired, Charlotte can reaffix its carry handle.
46:26And to fill the gaps, she's preparing a special recipe.
46:35This isn't a tool I use every day, but I had a bit of a eureka moment where I thought,
46:40actually, I can grate some of this plastic, I can make myself some kind of melted plastic paste
46:45and use that to reinforce the handle.
46:47So I'm just going to mix it with the chemical weld solution and I should get a nice plastic paste to fix the handle.
46:53Plastic is just kind of slowly melting.
47:14That is just the consistency I'm looking for.
47:22This is going to really help reinforce this joint.
47:24It's such a small surface area where those two pieces meet, so anything I can do to help that
47:29is going to be really useful.
47:48I'm going to leave that now to dry.
47:50It looks a little bit messy, but once it has fused on with a bit of sanding,
47:53I'll see whether it's worked and whether it's strong enough to be able to carry the doll's house.
47:57Let's give it a go.
48:24All right, lock that into position and drum roll.
48:28Let's have a look.
48:32Yeah, that's looking really good.
48:34I'm not seeing it coming apart.
48:36It's holding it nice.
48:38I'll get the roof primed and painted and the doll has to be ready to go home.
48:54The final task for Kirsten on the wolf's head is a thorough scrape and polish.
49:06I'm doing a bit of dentistry here.
49:08touching in and making these teeth look lovely and white and whole again.
49:17And the wolf is really starting to look like it might be preparing for a grand howl again.
49:25This ceremonial prop had fallen into disrepair after decades of use by a pack of Cub Scouts.
49:39Right, let's get this together.
49:41That way, like that.
49:42Akela, Helen and the Cubs are back to be reunited with the wolf they make their promise with every week.
49:54Welcome. In you come.
49:56Hello.
49:57Hello.
49:58Hi.
49:59Nice to see you all.
50:00You're very excited to be back.
50:02Yeah.
50:03Yes.
50:04What are you hoping to see today?
50:05The ear repairs and his teeth that are blunt.
50:08I thought the ear was going to fall off any second.
50:12It's part of the history of who we are.
50:14It's part of the tradition that links us through from the past to the future.
50:19Are you all ready to see it?
50:21Yeah.
50:27Oh, wow.
50:29Oh, wow.
50:30That's brilliant.
50:32That's so cool.
50:33That is so cool.
50:34You'd never know that those ears were held on with yellow nasty.
50:39Look at his teeth.
50:42And the string is not broken.
50:44The string's not busted.
50:46Wow.
50:47Thank you so much.
50:48Wow.
50:50Wow.
50:52Have a look.
50:55That is incredible.
50:56Isn't it?
50:57Gosh.
50:59All that.
51:01I love the texture to it as well.
51:04I think it's just amazing.
51:07Will's made this lovely base for you.
51:10Have you made that as well?
51:11That is so cool.
51:12And you've put our colours on it.
51:14It's just brilliant, isn't it?
51:15Yeah.
51:16It's kind of...
51:17Teamwork.
51:18It's teamwork, isn't it, really?
51:19Yeah, it's teamwork.
51:20I'm sure there's a badge for that, isn't there?
51:21Teamwork is...
51:22Yeah.
51:23Teamwork's this one of these.
51:24It's this one with the holding hand.
51:25We think you have done such a lovely thing for your pack
51:30that we've made you your own repair shop badges.
51:35Oh, wow.
51:37Oh, my gosh.
51:38Wow.
51:39Oh, my gosh.
51:40Yep.
51:41Thank you so much for bringing this in,
51:43and it's clearly in really safe hands.
51:46Yeah.
51:47Yeah, it is.
51:48And it's going to be so treasured.
51:49Thank you very much.
51:50Nice to see you again, OK?
51:51Bye.
51:53Bye-bye.
51:54You're welcome.
51:55Bye-bye.
51:56Do you feel a howl coming on?
51:57I feel a howl coming on.
51:58Come on.
51:59Well done.
52:00Well done.
52:01Well done.
52:02I just want to smile.
52:03I just want to smile.
52:04I just want to smile because it's not tatty, and it looks loved, and it will carry on being loved.
52:14It looks much more fierce.
52:16I hope it didn't kill me.
52:19People who haven't seen it since it's just been all kind of in bits and all over the place are going to be, like, really shocked.
52:28It just looks so much nicer now it's in, like, one piece.
52:32I think Kirsten and Will have really done a good job fixing it.
52:44With the doll's house shipshape again, Charlotte's thought of an extra touch to link two generations.
52:57That's all the glazing finished.
52:59I'm really chuffed with that.
53:01Everything that was kind of sun-bleached before is now kind of matching the rest.
53:04It's looking vibrant.
53:06Audrey did have some furniture, but I thought it'd be nice for the girls to have a lot of things to play with,
53:10so I've managed to source some matching furniture to the original,
53:14and I thought I'd make something a bit more special, so I've started making some bedding.
53:22Audrey's sister, Reem, and Audrey's daughter, their names actually mean baby deer,
53:26so I've got some baby deer fabric, and I just thought this would be a lovely touch
53:30to get bedding with little deer on them.
53:40Steeped in the walls of this retro doll's house were happy childhood memories shared by two little girls,
53:48but a series of mishaps saw it broken and in bits.
53:59Great work. Right, let's get this covered up.
54:01Yeah.
54:04Right, here we go.
54:05Audreyja is back to see if she can honour her late sister Reem's wishes
54:11for her nieces to enjoy it, as her and her sister once did.
54:18Hello. Hello.
54:19Welcome back.
54:20Hi, thank you.
54:21Nice to see you.
54:22And you.
54:23How are you feeling?
54:24A bit nervous, but there's lots of excitement back home.
54:26Both my daughters, every day, they've been like,
54:28is the doll's house coming home today?
54:30Really? Yeah.
54:31Yeah, they're really keen.
54:32What do you hope that I've managed to achieve?
54:34Just something that can be played with and used without the fear of it all just crumbling even more, really.
54:41It'll be a nice sort of full circle and some more happy memories made with it, hopefully.
54:47Would you like to take a look?
54:48Yes, please.
54:49Yes?
54:50Okay.
54:51Okay.
54:54Oh, my gosh.
54:57Wow.
54:58You can't even see any joints or anything.
55:01And it's much brighter.
55:04It's how I remember it.
55:06That's the colour it used to be.
55:10It feels so much sturdier.
55:11Though that is way more robust than it's ever been, I think.
55:16Oh, my God.
55:18Now, does this bring back memories of you and your sister playing with it?
55:20Yeah, absolutely.
55:21Like, the table and the chairs around it and there being enough to actually make a story with as well.
55:27Your eyes are just looking around.
55:29I know.
55:30Letting everything.
55:31I want to see what else there is.
55:33Oh.
55:34Oh.
55:36Wow.
55:39That's really thoughtful.
55:43Yeah.
55:44I didn't know you about that at all.
55:48Oh, you're welcome.
55:50With the deers on it, I think my daughters will get that straight away as well.
55:55I'm really pleased, really excited to give it to my daughters and let them play with it the way my sister had wanted.
56:02And now it's got something really meaningful to us and our family.
56:06Something that we can treasure forever now as a family.
56:09So thank you so much, honestly.
56:11Well, I hope I've done your sister proud.
56:12You definitely have.
56:13Honestly, I can't thank you enough.
56:15It looks like it could get another 40 years out of it.
56:18I hope the girls have years of fun with it.
56:21They will, I'm sure.
56:22It's over to you now.
56:23Yeah.
56:27So, Charles, bye-bye.
56:28Bye.
56:31Do you know, I've got some of the kids toys at home I might bring in for you to look at.
56:35Well done, Charlotte.
56:38I think Charlotte's work has been incredible.
56:40I had no idea that she could make it look like this.
56:43I wasn't expecting that at all.
56:45This is just as it was.
56:47You know, remembering how we'd played with it as children.
56:50It feels lovely that we can carry on remembering my sister.
56:54It can create more happy memories.
56:56It's not sad anymore.
57:01If you have a treasured possession that's seen better days,
57:05and you think the team can help,
57:07please get in touch at bbc.co.uk
57:10slash take part.
57:11And join us in The Repair Show.
57:15for the residents.
57:16There are lots of children.
57:18ΓΆrnekos
57:20Media
57:24jared
57:27in
57:28in
57:30ι
57:32Transcription by CastingWords
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