DREW PRITCHARD
Star of TV’s Salvage Hunters and a keen Historic racer
1. After leaving school at 16 with no qualifications, I landed a job at a stained glass restorer. I trained for seven years and asked if I could have these panels in lieu of wages when I left. They are brilliantly simple in their design and execution.
2. I’ve had over 100 Volkwagens since I was 17. This 1952 ‘crotch cooler’ splitwindow was imported to the UK in 1964 and sat in a barn for decades. I’ve had the chassis restored and conserved the rest; I’ve not even cleaned the glass. I use it in dry weather, on WW2 Kübelwagen tyres! 3. I’m obsessed with chairs, but this one is really special. Late 19th Century English, it has perfect lines and I bought it from the descendants of the man who purchased it new. It’s the chair I use to sit and think in. 4. Aged 23, I did my first Newark Antiques Fair and had a very successful weekend. I’ve always liked the simplicity of a Rolex and at the end of the Fair a dealer offered this watch to me for £700. That was 24 years ago and I’ve worn it every day since. 5. My little Jack Russell is called Enzo and came from a farm to which I was delivering. Now 13, he can be a right pain but I love him, and he appears as a logo on my company website, van and stationery. 6. There’s always been a very active scooter scene in North Wales, where I grew up and still live, and I was always a Vespa guy. But when I rode this refurbished and subtly upgraded ‘Red Devil’ 1953 Lambretta by Howard Chambers, I just had to buy one. 7. One of the most exciting things I’ve ever bought is Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird WSR boat tool chest. It turned up at a tiny auction, full of old paint cans! Chalked inside the lid are compression ratios and, we think, speeds over timed runs. 8. When my son was very, very young, he wrote me a note: ‘To my best person in the world, my daddy’. I was devastated when I lost it but, because I’d taken a photo, I was able to have it tattooed on my arm. 9. My cap has become my trademark but I’ve worn them since I was 13! My original was stolen, but I found it hanging up in an antiques shop in Cheddar Gorge… Now we sell exact copies through the website. 10. You may have seen this on Salvage Hunters: it’s a papier-mâché elephant made to advertise Fremlins Ales. The wear gives it that ‘X factor’ – it’s not hugely valuable but that doesn’t matter in the slightest.