Jane and Tory, sound advice thank you 
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I have an unusual vase. My grandparents lived in Canada before my Mum was born and, for a little while, Granddad worked at Lloyd Loom. He did an apprentice piece that involved working the strips around a milk bottle (a different shape in Canada in the 1920s to what they are in modern UK).
My Mum inherited it when Nan died and my brother and sister decided I should have when Mum died as I was the only one who’d been to Canada since my grandparents return to the UK.
It’s a weird looking brown thing but it means a lot to me.
I have three Lloyd Loom chairs that became mine after my parents died. One was Mum’s nursing chair that she used when feeding me, so that makes it (and the other two) at least 74 years old. Dad cut the legs down so that the chair was lower. I have no idea why. Over the decades the chairs have been painted more than once and so now have a wonderful shabby chic look about them - very appropriate for France.
I have little, nothing really, in the way of emotional belongings that I wouldn’t be parted from.
Except, my dad’s ‘WARRANTED ALL BRISTLE 1940’ WW2 government-issue boot brush. It’s one year older than me, and will continue to brush my shoes. I have nothing belonging to my mother but have enough memories. The photos are there but they don’t match the memories.
If I could bring back anything from the past, I’d bring back the Hercules boys’ bicycle dad bought me when I was 7 – a bit like the photo but was green.
And the holding hands walk with mum when she took me to school for the first time when I was 5. I remember the walk but nothing about arriving at school, or the school itself! Apparently, I wasn’t at that school for very long and remember being very happy at what was to become my second school. I’d like to know what happened at the first school!
And I’d like to bring back my mum’s violin. But having it brought back to life at The Repair Shop would be much too emotional. I get really screwed up sometimes.
Ps – my brand-new metal detector arrived just as I was finishing writing this post. It is something I’d treasure but only as in ‘treasure hunting’. I leave now to go do some unpacking!
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Much easier and more comfortable to feed a baby if your knees are higher than they normally would be when you are sitting. Unless you are hugely tall cutting a bit off the chair legs makes it miles more comfortable.
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Coincidentally I’ve just turned a set of replacement legs for an oak and elm chair for just that purpose. The owner couldn’t bear to cut the existing legs down to size so when the chair has served its low-rise purpose it can be quickly restored to as-new (well, as 110 year-old to be precise) condition.
Edit to add - I also made the new back legs a little shorter than the front to give a better rake to the seat.
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Marvellous! What a good idea to have the interchangeable legs.
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Me too, but painful for my Mum. Bassett Green Road, Southampton, heading for the school in ‘The Dip’. The story my Mum always told against herself was that, as walking along so proudly with her first born, looking from side to side at all the other Mums…she walked smack into a lamp post. 
As an object for the Repair shop though, an easy choice. A very old wall plaque handed down in our seafaring family with a brass clock and a brass barometer side by side. The clock didn’t work when I inherited it many years ago and I took it to a clockmaker a few villages away from here. He got it going and polished up and I carefully wound it with the key everyday, but then one day it stopped although fully wound. If only I lived in Sussex. 
There’s an excellent clockmaker /repairer in Issigeac, I can’t remember his name but he is English so shouldn’t be too difficult to track down.
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I think his business is called Trouver le Temps, so I will keep him in mind, but Issigeac is more than a 200 km roundtrip from here, further than I normally drive these days. 
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I was about to say… keep your eyes open and ask at Jeweller’s shops. There are still folk who mend clocks and watches… it’s not cheap but it is well done.
Yes but the trouble is I took it to a specialist clockmaker last time, I can’t remember the cost but it wasn’t cheap as you say and he had it for 2 or 3 weeks I think, and yet it still stopped working within a year. I was really careful not to overwind it, just 2 or 3 turns each morning, He is no longer there.
A pity you couldn’t have got your money back through his guarantee/insurance…
Ah well, better luck next time…
Thinking about it, there was a clock specialist, down an alley in the heart of old Perigueux. His shop was fascinating.
Was this the one you used ??
No, he was in Piegut Pluvier. I had an English friend in the town and he highly recommended him. My friend had his own health problems later so I did not want to trouble him with my, less important, ones.
The old town of Perigueux is fascinating and I would love to investigate next time we visit, but with Fran and Jules on board for one of her medical visits I doubt there will be time.
Found, looking through stuff in a storage box - not sure where it came from - a heavy brass antique German DRP & GM alarm clock. Nice little thing – 50x50x45mm - and it works, ticking away sweetly after winding it up, keeps time, and I think I’ve fallen in love with it!
It’s missing one foot and the alarm needs releasing. Don’t think it’s worth much but because I like it and it sits conveniently on a shelf just above my PC, I’m going to have it cleaned up and repaired. If I can find someone to do it properly.
Old technology - it’ll last another 100 years maybe – worth doing?
I call it antique because I found the same model on an antiques website, called as such.
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