Reclaiming the capital
Lucy Evans visits the huge yard packed full of old treasures where you can pick up beautiful restored pieces to transform your home...
IT’S a reclamation yard bursting with unusual rescue items from some of Cardiff ’s oldest buildings. Cardiff Reclamation, just off Rover Way in Tremorfa, is full of antiques and old parts of Cardiff’s buildings which are restored into unique pieces for people to buy.
The reclamation site saves anything coming out of an old building, which can range from fireplaces to windows.
Cardiff Reclamation manager Jeff Evans said: “We rescue building materials from damaged buildings and save what we can to restore.”
Jeff collects the items and restores them himself. He originally got into reclamation work through the building industry and he has been restoring old items for 25 to 30 years. After he restores the pieces, he displays them at the yard for people to come and browse.
People often come to the reclamation site when they are moving house or renovating. They want to buy a piece that is different or unique in some way instead of a simple, modern item, Jeff said. Parts of Cardiff’s history occasionally come through Cardiff Reclamation’s doors, like the windows from the former Churchills Hotel in Llandaff.
But most of the items there are things Jeff describes as the “basics” for houses such as floorboards, radiators, fireplaces and the like.
“The stuff we do have are the basics, the meat and potatoes of any house,” he said. For Jeff, no object stands out from the others as they all have their unique history.
He said: “It’s all of interest to me. Everything has got a history to it. Just a floorboard makes you think of what people and how many people have walked over that floor in its history.”
Cardiff Reclamation can be found on Tremorfa Industrial Estate and is open Monday to Saturday.