Spotlight on salvage: Guardian Angels

For anyone who enjoys history and likes to collect old things, the annual Salvo Fair held at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire is like the proverbial chocolate box – full of revelatory treats. Among the 60 or so exhibitors that pitch up each summer for Europe’s biggest festival of salvage, one yard is perennially popular, Antique Church Furnishings.

The yard’s modest-sized marquee is stuffed with ecclesiastical cast-offs – pews, throne chairs, lecterns, statues, goblets, candlesticks – ferreted out from all over the country by owners Steve Williams and Lawrence Skilling. ‘One man’s unwanted items are another man’s treasure. We never know what unloved objects we’re going to find in crypts and belfries,’ says Lawrence of their regular forays to buy new stock.

Both Steve and Lawrence were working in the media when they entered the salvage business, almost by accident, in 1993. ‘I was living in Fulham at the time,’ explains Steve, ‘and one day drove past a Baptist church that was being cleared out and saw all these really interesting things going into a big skip. When I stopped to enquire, the builders said, “Take what you like”, so I rang up my friend Lawrence, who had a van, and we loaded up and put everything in my back garden under a plastic sheet.’

Gradually, the pair made contacts within the salvage world and sold on the various items, such as a baptismal bowl, hymn boards and pews. ‘Once our eyes had been opened to the number of churches getting rid of things we thought, there’s an opportunity to save some of this,’ says Lawrence. ‘The great era of church building in Britain happened between 1890 and 1910, when 80% of our churches were built. Now there’s an oversupply.’

ABOVE (clockwise from top left): A communion holder with set of glasses; a saintly statue; throne chairs on offer; an assortment of brass candlesticks.

Sign of the times

Tapping into this unwanted resource, Steve and Lawrence set up their yard in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey in 1996. Twelve years on and the premises, located on a light industrial estate, are replete with finds. At least twice a week they go hunting for new stock. ‘We source items from buildings that are being refurbished or sometimes deconsecrated and converted,’ explains Steve. ‘Realistically the use of churches has changed over the years and people want a space that is more comfortable and functional that can be used for crèches and community groups as well as for worship.’

One of their earliest finds isn’t for sale, however. A large lime wood statue of Archangel Michael, made in the 1930s and with a definite Art Deco feel, greets visitors to the Surrey yard. With golden wings at rest, he is busy weighing souls in a set of scales before sending them to heaven or hell. ‘We found him when we first opened up,’ says Steve, ‘we’d gone up to St Michael’s Church in Tividale in Warwickshire to buy a brass lectern, and we saw him lying dismantled on the floor. He had been on top of a rood screen and the church was going to burn him or put him in a skip. He came home with us instead and has been our guardian angel watching over us ever since. A few pop stars have tried to buy him, but always in vain – he’s definitely not for sale.’

There’s plenty more that is, though. Solid oak pews, repaired and polished up, are one of the most popular buys and can cost as little as £195. Usually around 12ft long, they can be shortened to any length required, for use as dining table benches or extra seating in a hall or living room. Simple wooden table lecterns, £25, are often recycled as cookery book stands, while the more ornate brass lecterns (£2,000-plus) are popular with restaurants as greeting desks and also with thriving churches looking for a new lectern. Hymn boards, from £70, make useful kitchen noticeboards, and collection plates, £15, are ideal for holding keys. Then there are the bigger items, like baptismal fonts, that are popular for conservatories and gardens, and pulpits have a new fan base too – club DJs.

ABOVE (left to right): A contemplative cherub; Home required for a Victorian harmonium; hymn boards and furniture.
BELOW (l-r): A Mothers’ Union banner; sitting in a treen bowl for storing incense is a holy water shaker; a small stained-glass porch lantern.

Quality and craftsmanship

Steve comments: ‘Victorian and Edwardian church furniture is mainly made from oak, pine and pitch pine, and it is all very well made because congregations wanted to buy the best for their buildings. Customers find that it’s very good value compared to modern furniture and has a sense of history – we can tell customers exactly where their piece came from. There is also a demand from churches still in use that need to replace objects like-for-like or find items that are appropriate to the period and which can be reused in their original context.’

Customers come from all over the UK to visit the yard, as well as from further afield in America and New Zealand, and range from individuals looking for things for their homes to churches searching for a new altar cloth or lectern. And not everyone leaves with a big item – there are reasonably priced goblets, candle snuffers and holy water shakers to choose from.

The TV and film industries are fans too, with set designers from Miss Marple, Midsomer Murders and The Tudors all hiring props from the yard in recent years. ‘We sent 400 chairs up to Ely Cathedral the other day to go on set for the filming of The King’s Speech starring Colin Firth, and we’ve supplied chairs for the film The Da Vinci Code and the latest Harry Potter film. There’s always an intriguing project,‘ says Steve.

Find out more about buying imported rugs and linen at the Salvo Fair...
Find out more about buying reclaimed building materials and accessories at the Salvo Fair...

FEATURE CAROLINE WHEATER PHOTOGRAPHS YUKI SUGIURA
Featured in the April 2010 issue of Period Living