Repair Stories

During its 18 sessions, the Repair Café Godalming has seen some interesting items and in November, our 500th item was very special – a 100-year-old American Toboggan. The owner, Robin Gorringe, told us:

“Firefly was a well-known American manufacturer of high-quality toboggans in the early years of the last century. This particular toboggan was given to my father, born in 1909, when he was aged about 10 years.

The toboggan was and still is extremely fast and can be steered. It had much to do with my father’s love of speed and excitement, eventually leading to his racing cars at Brooklands in Weybridge, and that in turn led to my brother and I competing in motor rallies. It has much to answer for!

My two brothers and I inherited the toboggan and used it extensively while we were youngsters. It has subsequently been enjoyed by our six children and five grandchildren. At some point, I collided with a tree at high speed and this resulted in one of the two runners becoming slightly bent. It now needs great skill to keep it travelling in a straight line!”

Whilst not able to fix the bent runner problem in the café, one of our volunteers, Martyn, agreed to work on the toboggan at home and before long he had fixed the bent metalwork, made some small replacements and fixes, and then given this venerable item a polish. In the photos you see Martyn on the left returning the toboggan to Robin. Even after a century, the patterning on the seat is clearly visible and the second photo shows the maker and model stencilled on the underside.

One of the important and very rewarding things we do in the Repair Cafe is give new life to treasured but broken objects. 

Owner Jane Barrett sent us the following message about her decorative lamp:

"I took a beloved 20+ year old non-working lamp into the Repair Cafe, hoping the volunteers could work their magic. Due to electrician Dave’s care, diligence, enthusiasm and countless hours, I now have my lamp working again. He went over and above the Repair Cafe’s remit to work out what was wrong, asked me to order new parts and then fix it (it wasn’t a simple fix) and I couldn’t be more grateful. What a fabulous community service."