Celebrities on the hunt for treasure

Treasure trove: Dale Sumner of Ribble Reclamation counts the likes of Jools Holland, Midge Ure and Roy Walker as customers

And they are just two of the celebrity treasure hunters who enjoy a good rummage around a salvage yard in Preston.

Like a few cast members of Coronation Street, or comedian Roy Walker of Catchphrase fame, they regard the four-acre site off New Hall Lane as a little goldmine for reclaimed building materials and quirky artefacts to add that special touch to their homes and gardens.

Yet staff at Ribble Reclamations in Ducie Place are far from star-struck. After all they have been regulars on the small screen themselves.

The yard has become one of the country’s best-known architectural salvage businesses after featuring in two TV series - Seeking Salvage on the History Channel and ITV’s Trash for Treasure. Ribble Reclamations also hit the headlines when it sold a giant head of comedian Jimmy Carr for £3,500. It was later turned into a bar at a festival, branded the “Jimmy Carr Bar”.

Not bad for a little business tucked away at the end of a little side street. Owner Dale Sumner, who has run the business for nearly 30 years, said: “Midge Ure was here not long ago, he bought a piece of French rouge slate.

“And every time Jools Holland plays the Guild Hall he comes in. He bought a decorative copper lightning conductor last time as he has a Gothic style home he has developed.

“I’ve also had Roy Walker in here, and various people from Coronation Street.”

Dale’s most recent interesting sale was a set of beautiful Victorian windows retrieved from a house that was demolished in Southport. The leaded and hand painted glass was sold the very next day.

He also has a life-sized stone statue of a naked woman from the Port Admiral pub in Preston, which was demolished in the 1960s, and a stone from the old Corn Exchange.