Repair shop

A natural scavenger since boyhood, Tim Smith now buys, sells and lovingly restores furniture from his pint-sized Georgian home and workshop in Ludlow

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Tim Smith is not one to be put off by a bit of wear and tear. His 18th-century cherrywood dining chairs had elm seats riddled with woodworm; his Georgian sofa had broken rails and sagging upholstery; and his terraced townhouse on a side alley in Ludlow, Shropshire, had rotten windows, a sapling growing out of a top-floor bedroom, and a hole in the roof that leaked water into a downstairs cupboard, filling the kitchen with up to six inches of water. 'The previous tenant said to me: “For heaven's sake don't buy it, the place is a nightmare”.'

But one man's nightmare is another's ideal home. 'I loved it,' says Tim. 'Its core is 17th century, but it was modernised at the turn of the 19th century, and the ground floor made an ideal space for my workshop.' Tim is a furniture restorer, sought after by antiques dealers and private clients for his impeccable craftsmanship and respect for patina. Behind the pot-bellied shop windows on either side of the front door is a workbench, bristling with the old wooden-handled tools he prefers to use, while the space opposite is stacked with grandfather clocks, chests, tables and chairs, all awaiting his attention.