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

Craftsman David Burville takes on the repair of a little clockwork tractor that holds significant memories for owner Nicola Clemo. The item belonged to Nicola’s father, a travelling agricultural salesman, who used it as a working demonstration model to sell tractors to farmers in Africa in the 1950s. The tractor is dearly treasured, but it hasn’t ploughed a furrow in years – the mechanics are bent out of shape, the seat has broken off and the shiny red paintwork has faded to rust. Can David resurrect this precious relic and get it working again for the delight of Nicola and her brother Bill?

Sandy Richards from Cornwall arrives at the Repair Shop, bearing a precious but delicate memento of her beloved parents for the attention of ceramics conservator Kirsten Ramsay. The item – a plate bearing a photograph of Sandy’s mother, gifted to her by her husband – is in a terrible state of repair, having been broken and clumsily re-assembled with gaping cracks right across Sandy’s mother’s face. Kirsten has never tackled anything quite like it before, and the job proves just as challenging as she had anticipated. She has to draw on all her skills and ingenuity to get it back to its very best.

Compass repair expert Barry Phillips takes on the repair of an old military compass that has seen service in both World Wars. Passed down to current owner Stephen Munn via two generations of soldiers, it is the oldest such instrument that Barry has ever worked on. But before repair work can even begin, Barry needs to tackle the dangerous radiation that such old compasses emit!

And percussion restorer Pete Woods is on hand to welcome a beautiful old vibraphone into the barn. This jazz percussion instrument, with its distinctive, haunting sound, hasn’t been playable for many years. Can Pete get it singing again, ready to be enjoyed by a whole new generation?