The Toy Works
Melmerby · Cumbria · 40 years
Forty years of restoring rocking horses and dolls houses from the Old Village Bakery near Penrith, alongside making wooden toys. The most honest paragraph about price in the whole dataset: restoration is not cheap, and anybody offering to do it for a few pounds is not going to do a proper job.
Getting hold of them
- 01768 881249
- info@thetoyworks.co.uk
- Their own site
- You can walk in at Melmerby
She would rather you rang. Email tends to sit.
If it gets lost
Not stated
This is a blank on their page, not an answer from them. We have never asked anybody in this trade the question. Of the 185 businesses we have read, 4 have written anything down about losing an item: 2 say it is insured, 2 say the risk is yours. The other 181 are silent, and silence is not a policy either way.
If you would rather not have to phrase it
“Before I send it, can I ask what happens if it gets lost or damaged while it’s with you? I’m not trying to catch you out, it just can’t be replaced. Whatever the answer is, could you put it in an email so I’ve got it in writing?”
“No, we don’t cover it” is a fine answer to get. It tells you to insure the post yourself for the full amount, both ways.
If it is lost or damaged
Their website does not say what happens if your item is lost or damaged while they have it.
Ask before you post anything you could not replace. Only four of the businesses we hold publish an answer to this.
What they take on
- Full restoration and rebuilds
- Mending and seams
- Joints
Works in leather pads.
What they won’t do
The part every other directory leaves out. None of this is a criticism. It is how you avoid three wasted weeks.
- Restores to as-new unless you say otherwise
- Doesn't say whether they take work by post
Their exact words on what they refuse
Quoted from their own pages, unedited, because a paraphrase of a refusal is the kind of thing you find out was wrong three weeks in.
- “Restoration is not cheap as it is very time consuming work and the materials used can be very expensive. Anyone offering to carry out the work for a few pounds is not going to do a proper job and what may seem to be a bargain will undoubtedly lead to tears and disappointment.”
Getting it there
- Doesn't say whether they take work by post
- You can bring it in
Money
- Fixed menu of prices, so you know before you send it
Anything else they say
- Not a soft toy repairer. Listed because rocking horses and dolls houses are what the plush specialists send away, and there is nowhere else for them to go.