Man with a Van: My Story

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The TV star went to an open viewing and made an offer on the spot last year, which was instantly accepted. He has now been putting a lot of blood, sweat and tears into revamping the property from five separate flats into its former townhouse glory, although he will be holding onto his cottage in Conwy.

It may be just as well. His remarkable success, and the televisual fame that has accompanied it, have inspired many people to try their hand at what he does. “I have a lot of imitators – and some of them are now doing Drew Pritchard better than me.” Staying honest A shop is what Pritchard calls in his book “a very expensive gilded anchor, weighing you down”. A distraction from the nuts and bolts of how the money is made in the trade. Drew Pritchard set himself up as a dealer when he was a teenager, rooting around in scrapyards, working out of a shed and getting about in a ropy old Transit. Now he's a leading figure in the antiques trade with an international online business, and he's hugely popular presenter of hit TV show Salvage Hunters. But he's still as driven by the thrill of the find as he was forty years ago. Too many would-be dealers today, he finds, look up the value of an item and think that’s what they should be asking for it. Not realising that there is a chain of dealers through which an item’s value will rise, each making a modest 20 per cent profit, until it reaches the London showroom which has the expensive clientele but also the costly overheads. 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."He opened up about his childhood and how he found his passion for antiques. He said he and his friends would go and look in sheds in his home village in Glan Conwy, Wales. That same year, Drew opened an antiques emporium on Conwy’s High Street. It was an immediate hit, cementing the historic town’s position as a destination for independent stores. The new shop also brought full circle a long-cherished dream.

It clearly irks him that people can be sniffy about Salvage Hunters but Pritchard believes he has shaped the market as it stands today. He started pushing brown furniture 10 years ago and now it’s the norm for young people to be dealing in it. So far so good. Then: “And don’t be a tourist; you see these ladies turning up at Ardingly at about 9am in a silly hat, expensive coat and wellies and you know ‘everything went four hours ago love’ so –get there early. They would return with oars, bicycles and car badges, which they'd sell by the side of a road. The resulting cash would be spent on sweets and magazines. It’s a world with its own language, although Pritchard says daytime antiques shows have ruined it and watered it down.Pritchard lovingly restored the building, getting everything from the panelling, to the lighting and the music perfect, but now it’s gone. Sold to a local businessman who offered him a price he couldn’t refuse. “Everything is always for sale” is another piece of antique-dealer wisdom. Drew said: "The next morning they had an open viewing and I was first through the door. The property had been five flats for 48 years and every inch was painted in white gloss, including the original cantilevered staircase. 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”. 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

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.” I was talking to a dealer friend the other day who said so far this year he has turned over a million quid but he said he hasn’t made any money at all because he just keeps buying more stuff. And that’s what I do. It’s a passion and it [the selling] allows us to keep hunting for more” The Edwardian to the late 1940s was not a great period for the majority of furniture and that is what was became known as brown furniture, but, what happened was that everything that was old and brown was tarred with the same brush including 18 th and 19 th century English furniture – finest on the planet that has ever been. 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.

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He had spotted the home two years earlier but at that point it was too expensive for him. But the agent flagged it with him last year after the price was reduced.

I understand where his dislike of Ikea and upcycling comes from, but nobody appointed him the head of the furniture Stasi, as far as I am aware. 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.” Of all the people who read the book he hopes just one person might get “it” and go on to be brilliant.

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Pritchard asks me to imagine how much art and culture society would have lost to landfill but for the enthusiasm of the antiques dealer. “To me it’s a service. Yes, we make money out of it, but so does a roofer. So does the butcher.” 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? The shop was welcomed by local businesses - with Drew attracting Salvage Hunters fans to the area. He had initially looked at plans to expand due to its success but by May 2022 had decided it was time to close up. And so Pritchard is searching for the next “it” item. “I’ve been around a while. I’ve done a lot of stuff and seen a lot of things. Everything used to be really cool for a while. But everything that’s cool becomes passé. And that’s where I’m at. So I’m just working harder at what I’m doing and being honest with myself.” 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.