Today in the Repair Shop, Jay Blades and the team bring three treasured family heirlooms, and the memories they hold, back to life.

Organ builder David Burville takes on the repair of a vintage harmonium, brought into the shop by Marian Stanley. Marian’s family come from Stepney in London’s East End, and she has many fond memories of the harmonium and the festive gatherings for which it provided the soundtrack, with family members of different generations all taking their turn at the keyboard. However, the harmonium is now over a hundred years old and hasn’t played a tune in decades. With leaky bellows, broken reeds and cracked and chipped casing, David has a massive job on his hands to get it playing again.

Ceramics conservator Kirsten Ramsay also faces a daunting challenge in the shape of a ceramic sweet dish that was smashed to bits 25 years ago by then 13-year-old Karen Barnett. The dish was Karen’s father Richard’s pride and joy, and Karen has lived with the guilt ever since. But shattered into countless tiny fragments, the dish will require every ounce of Kirsten’s experience and skills to put it seamlessly back together again.

Jay leads the repair of a hand-crafted doll’s house with a touching story behind it. As a young girl, on their daily walk to school together, Debbie White and her grandfather would pass the same black and white house every morning. Debbie loved the house so much that her grandfather promised her that one day she would have it. And the following Christmas, there it was under the tree in miniature form, handmade by her grandfather. Debbie has treasured the doll’s house ever since, but now rickety and in danger of collapsing, it takes the combined efforts of Jay, furniture restorer Will Kirk and art conservator Lucia Scalisi to return the beloved toy to its former splendour.

And vintage camera expert Brenton West takes on the restoration of a remarkable Victorian telescope camera, the Instamatic of its day. Show less