Piecing Roald Dahl's Cottage Gate Back Together! 📚 | Season 9 Episode 19 | The Repair Shop

➤ Subscribe ➤ http://bit.ly/RepairShopYT First into the barn is Hannah Smart with a moss-covered garden gate which is essentially just a pile of sticks. It comes from the cottage Hannah has just bought which is the former home of Roald Dahl's mother. When Dahl returned from fighting in the Second World War he lived at the cottage with his mother and the gate is even referenced in his autobiography when he describes the moment he came home from the war for the first time. Years of neglect had seen the gate disappear beneath the hedge until Hannah unwittingly unearthed it. As an important landmark in the village with a connection to Dahl fans the world over wood specialist Will Kirk is tasked with the restoration. The gate is in a very bad state having had all its joints rot away so the challenge for Will is to work out how to maintain as much of the original structure as possible when none of it fits together. Next, David Burville has an appointment with Glaswegian Jon Keogh who has a homemade model of a prawn trawler made by his dad, John. The model is a replica of a real boat owned by his father who took up fishing after his career building boats in the Clyde shipyards came to an end. Having always yearned to make a living from the sea when Glasgow's ship building industry declined it was the perfect opportunity to make his dreams come true. Sadly, the fishing industry also declined, and John ended up selling his trawler, something that was hard to cope with at the time. To help him manage he decided to build an exact replica of the boat he loved from memory. The model is in a bad way with broken lights, a deteriorating hull and snapped off rigging snapped. As David gets to work, he finds more problems than anticipated when he discovers the batteries have leaked. Arriving last into the barn are mother and daughter Mona Roddy and Dearbhla Lennon from Dundalk in Ireland. The have a miniature Irish dancing dress that Dearbhla wore when she was 2 years old. It has the traditional lace collar and cuffs which had originally been made for mum Mona when she was a child learning to dance in the 1950s. It's tradition that the lace collar and cuffs are unpicked and re-sewn onto all the dancing costumes and Mona wore them until she finished competitive dancing in her early 20s. When Dearbhla was learning as a child the lace was added to her costume and since then has been worn by Dearbhla's own children. Having had an internationally successful dance career in shows like Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, Dearbhla and Mona have a close connection to the lace and the little dress where it all began. The dress is stained but the 70-year-old lace is looking very tattered and is becoming unstitched. It is the job of textile conservator Rebecca Bissonnet to carefully bring the lace, and the dress, back to their former glory. If you love The Repair Shop, check out The Bidding Room 📺 https://bit.ly/TheBiddingRoomYT 🎟️ The Repair Shop is going on tour across the UK! Tickets can be purchased at: https://bit.ly/4d5TL6l Nestled deep in the British countryside is The Repair Shop, where a team of Britain's most skilled and caring craftspeople rescue and resurrect items their owners thought were beyond saving. Together they transform priceless pieces of family history and bring loved, but broken treasures, and the memories they hold back to life. If you have a treasured item that's seen better days and you think our experts can help, please get in touch now! 👉 http://bit.ly/TakePartTRS