Man with a Van: My Story

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In it I share my story for the very first time on how I’ve managed to turn my passion into a successful and highly rewarding business of finding and restoring antiques.

What he can’t teach is taste and experience. You’re born with the former, and the latter you have to do for yourself. What he’s tried to answer in simplest terms is how to do “this”. All the questions you felt too embarrassed to ask. Whether you are a professional dealer or an amateur enthusiast, and whatever your budget, Drew's on a mission to show you how to enrich your life with beautiful things, that have their own unique story and that bring you joy. And then how to part with them for cash! As a family we’ve had great times, it’s a great party house. No matter where I was on a buying trip, I’d travel four or five hours just to get home for the night.”He's known to millions of viewers around the world as the star of Salvage Hunters. And, for Drew Pritchard, digging out treasures has been with him since childhood.

He groans at the very mention of them. “I wish I’d never put that out there.” He’s bored to tears with people asking him about them. “It’s just become this behemoth.” The main thing is that I want people to be enthused. They might be terrified for half of it but then they might suddenly go, ‘You know what? I could do that.’ I want people to have a go. The only time to start is now. Right now.” His father was a sign writer who collected old bits and pieces to restore motorbikes and cars from spare parts. It fostered Drew’s interest in reclaimed antiques and vehicles. He had, he said, been brought up in a family where it was “normal to have a Manx Norton with its wheels off on the kitchen table and be taken to school in an XK120 with the exhaust held on with baling twine”. We have been trained to buy new but don’t be afraid of buying old. Break the cycle by buying something with soul. There is a story attached to it and you can find someone to restore it and the love affair starts.” Money is just the tool; the thing that enriches you most in this business is the business itself. It’s doing it. Finding that thing. Getting that excitement. Then transferring that excitement in the way you photograph it or talk about it. All the money does is allow me to do it all over again.”Having simplified his life, Pritchard has big plans in the pipeline. There’s a house in Bath that he is currently restoring, which will take him away from his beloved north Wales. If like me you were the kid who preferred skips to school and learnt more from lost relics in sheds than lessons – you might be interested in my first book..... "Man With A Van".

North Wales Live has spoken to local business and property owners about whether losing Drew has impacted the town or if Dylan's has been an ample, or not superior, replacement. Put your hand on it, say you love it, smile and say you will take it away that day and I guarantee you will get the best price possible.” Drew Pritchard for Barker and Stonehouse – Harling Snuggle Chair Mr Pritchard is being a bit disingenuous here, I have watched many episodes of Salvage Hunters and a few of the spin off restoration programme. He has not only bought and sold painted furniture, but he has also had his restorers paint pieces. I think his comments amount to ‘I am the arbiter of what is, and is not acceptable’ and hopefully is somewhat tongue in cheek, however passionately expressed. He describes his new life as a palate-cleanser. “I’ve completely binned my old life and started afresh.” Has it made him better at what he does? “Yes, definitely. I’m more concentrated.” So I ask if, perhaps it was a “worthless” piece of furniture and it’s made someone happy to paint it so they can keep using it where’s the harm?

Retailers:

I’d love to be right on about this and PC but no it’s not ok because you have vandalised your environment and put something tasteless and cheap and nasty into it, and even it wasn’t that way you’ve made it that way and you’re not learning from it and it will go out of this small phase and still be something worthless so you have wasted your money [when you could have gone out and bought] something beautiful. Drew told Quest: “I was just utterly fascinated with it and it’s never left me. It’s not something I can explain why, I just had to be around this old stuff all the time."

But ask him about modern furniture and his passion appears to tip over into anger: “We have been trained like little lab rats to go to Ikea and buy things … and aren’t they great because they’re shiny lovely people who give you meatballs and sell you something that’s comfortable for five minutes and is instantly worth nothing, whereas you can go and buy yourself a chair at any antique shop or salvage yard or online for the same price or less that will be better and will last you all your life and will be more comfortable and that is more green because recycling’s all right but re-use is better. I'm keeping my Conwy cottage, but this is a big move I'm making. It has cost me all the money I've ever had."It wasn't just sheds - nearby woods would be home to old cars that had been dumped. In the summer holidays, he and best friend Tee - who later joined him on Quest TV's Salvage Hunters - would scour fields and beaches to see what they could salvage. In some respects, the move simply reflects his old mantra about antiques dealing – that items are worth nothing if left unsold in storerooms. Better to move on, get the deal done, and progress to the next item.