Enter a workshop filled with expert craftspeople, bringing loved pieces of family history and the memories they hold back to life. A heartwarming antidote to throwaway culture.

Season 11 - Episode 35



Woodwork conservator Will Kirk is presented with a kitchen curiosity and, without doubt, a first for the barn. The coconut scraper has been in Fausta’s family for over 100 years and was used daily to extract the white flesh from inside a coconut shell. Fausta grew up in Tamil Nadu, India, where coconut is used in much of the cuisine. The task of preparing the coconut often fell to a young Fausta. She prides herself on her speedy scraping skills! The low wooden stool is fitted with a sharp metal tool on its side, so that the user can sit astride it whilst scraping out the shells. Fausta now lives in the UK but continues to cook many of the region's coconut-based dishes, and having brought the scraper back from a recent trip to visit family, she would like to put it to good use again. However, the wooden section that holds the metal tool has crumbled, and the tool itself is blunt and rusted. Will does a wonderful job of creating an insert to fill the lost wood and works wonders with wood glue and some clever clamping to ensure the coconut scraper can serve its purpose once again.

Sue from Somerset delivers her late father’s wedding ring to goldsmith Richard Talman, hoping he can give it a new lease of life. The gold signet wedding ring was worn every day of Charles’s 64-year marriage to his beloved wife, Valerie, but not long after Valerie died, the ring was misplaced, causing everyone much concern. The ring was recently discovered but sadly after Charles had passed away. Sue knows it would bring her family much comfort to have it smartened up again as a symbol of her parents’ love. Richard pulls out all the stops with this treasure and enlists engraver Sam Marsden to carefully reinstate Charles’s initials.

And there’s more metal magic in the barn when a music stand arrives with proud owner Will. The folding stand was gifted to Will by his biggest fan, his father. Will started playing the cornet at school as a teenager, finding solace in music during the tricky teenage years and went on to be awarded a scholarship to study music. He has performed in many prestigious venues and now teaches music for a living. He feels he owes it all to his dad, who would move mountains to support him. He lost this special man when he was just 21, so the stand holds huge significance to him. Expert Brenton West rids it of rust and gets all the seized-up sections moving again, while Suzie creates a new leather strap to finish it off nicely.

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