Claire entered The Repair Shop with an antique clock and a heartwarming story. Presenter Jay Blades and horologist Steven Fletcher were on hand to welcome her and listen to the tale of her great-grandmother, Mable hiding chocolates on the clock before her bedtime. When Steven unveiled the result of the restoration, the guest was moved to tears.
“This belonged to my great grandmother, Mable, this clock would sit on her mantlepiece,” Claire explained.
“When we were kids, it had a vase on top – you can see the ring marks where she’s left the water damage – and we would go upstairs, put our pyjamas on, get ready or bed and she would always point to the clock and behind the vase on the clock, every single time we came downstairs was a pair of chocolate eclairs sweets.
“There were always two, one for me and one for my sister and it was her way of being naughty.
“We had already brushed our teeth, we knew it was naughty and I kept the secret until 10 years ago.
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“My parents had no idea she was doing ti and my mum was delighted when I told her this story, she thought it was very her,” she added.
“I’m very excited to be working on this,” Steven said. “I’m sure we’ll be able to do something.”
After Claire left, Steven turned to Jay and added: “I can see the movement is very dirty so I’ve got to look into that and see what’s wrong with the mechanism.
“The case… I will have to had that over to Will [Kirk]. I think you’ll have to encourage him to put a few sweets in there!”
Claire was amazed: “Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness. That looks amazing. The wooden sweeties!”
“Will has done the case and made these sweets to put on top for you,” the clock repairer explained. “You can’t eat them!”
“No I don’t want to, they’re absolutely beautiful,” the guest remarked picking them up to take a closer look.
“I know you’re very excited to hear the chimes,” Steven continued and played the clock.