Three highly sentimental heirlooms are thrown a lifeline by the barn’s expert team of craftspeople.

First up, luthier Julyan Wallis faces his most challenging fix to date, a guitar with literally no strings attached. Maggie, now from Kent, grew up with her family in Guyana where her father, Captain James Harris, worked on the river tugboats. He’d sometimes be away for weeks but would always return with his beloved guitar. He used a slide on the guitar to create a Hawaiian-style sound and his four daughters loved to hear him play. Tragically he died suddenly, when Maggie was just a teenager, and her mother moved the whole family to the UK, bringing their dad’s cherished guitar with them.

Maggie has been the custodian of the guitar for most of her life and has had to watch as it slowly disintegrated. She’s now set her heart on having it repaired so that she and her musical grandchildren can get as much pleasure playing it as the late, great Captain Harris did himself.

Arriving next is Malcolm from the West Midlands, with an old fishing reel that once belonged to his beloved grandad. Malcolm lived with his grandparents as a lad and he loved nothing more than to tag along with his grandad Wilf on his fishing trips. The joy of fishing is something Malcolm has never lost and he now has big plans to take this jammed-up reel out on the water – that’s if Steve Fletcher can get it spinning and casting once again.

Catherine from Warwick needs the expertise of leather expert Suzie to save her pig-shaped footstool, lovingly named Pogo. The pig pouffe was an engagement gift from her grandfather to her grandmother over 70 years ago and instantly became part of the family. It has had pride of place in the corner of three generations of living rooms and watched on at parties and special occasions. Catherine now feels Pogo’s looking a bit sorry for himself and his snout is crumpled; his leather body is also parched and his curly tail needs a lift. Show less