This beautiful Coalbrookdale Four seat Nasturtium bench dated 1862 had been seriously damaged and was smashed into eighty pieces.

Martin set about piecing the ‘bench jigsaw’ back together, which was a painstaking process. He had to support the weight of the bench by pinning each of the broken legs. He had to completely rebuild the back panels, starting with the main junctions to ensure it was structurally sound. He also had to recreate a section of the back panel where stems were missing from the flowers. There were old, crude repairs which had been made to this bench, which he set about refining and chasing detail back into the ugly welds. This was the most complicated bench restoration Martin has tackled yet, but he described the project as “really satisfying work!”