Trader Gray's Upcycling Heaven

Following on from yesterday's blogpost about David Kemp's work (here), you may be wondering where artists like him get their materials. A lot of David's come from antiques shops, car boot sales and house clearances. But some also come from reclaim yards and one of the best I've ever know wasn't too far away from his Cornish studio ...

Near to Penzance, between the villages of Long Rock and Marazion, there was once a place called Shiver Me Timbers. It consisted of acres of tumbledown shacks and sheds overflowing with marvellous junk. 

It's sadly, now long gone but, while it was there, it was a thing of chaotic beauty.

I visited the place many times and, over the years, I bought quite a few things knick-knacks and gewgaws. One such item was a pair of Spanish trawler fishing floats that now hang from the ceiling in my study. The owner of Shiver Me Timbers told me that they had been 'cut off one of their bastard poaching nets'. But that was the sort of tall story that Terry 'Trader' Gray used to tell all the time. There was a story attached to every item - often a rude story. But he was a gentleman and and raconteur and he loved what he called his 'museum of oddities and wonder'. 

When he died in 2009, his son Joe took over the business. However, in 2011 the landowner decided to sell the site to a property developer and Joe shifted what he could some three miles down the road to Crowlas and the Truthwall Industrial Estate where it now operates from. 

It has a website and a Facebook page and is still doing good business thanks to the current vogue for upcycling old furniture. It's not quite as magical as the former site but it's still well worth a visit and Joe is every bit the character his dad was.

For more brilliant pictures of the old site in its heyday do visit John Stumbles' excellent webpage about the place.

And here's Sky Neil's wonderful short documentary about Terry and the reclaim yard.