Historic telly at Sunderland's Museum Vaults pub survives 'near-death experience'

There was audible relief in a popular Sunderland pub when it's elderly television set was brought back to life by experts.

The set sits above the entrance to The Museum Vaults on Silksworth Row and has done for a very, very long time.

New customers, usually younger than the TV, are often surprised to see that when it's switched on, it broadcasts in colour.

The Vaults has been run by the Wilson family for decades. Current licensee Sara Wilson says the telly was purchased by her late father Fred in about 1986 - second hand from a nearby Hylton Road shop.

Mr Wilson has very much had his money's worth.

Nevertheless, when the 28-inch wood-surround Baird (a company acquired by Radio Rentals in 1960) ceased working in February, many feared the worst and that it would be placed in Sunderland Museum alongside exhibits of comparable age.

However, many of the pub's leading engineers were confounded when Sara enlisted a specialist; Lotus TVs in Grangetown, who in one day installed a new starter, thereby affecting its Lazarus return.

The telly is a fighter. It pulled through and is possibly now as good as new; although no one can actually remember it being new.

The pub also has a state-of-the-art 42-inch HD screen. But it somehow can't match its "granddad" for character.

Sara said: "It's better than before. Honestly it's amazing. I told the guy it was a long shot, but he said that he'd served his time with Baird's and could help. He mends all sorts of stuff.

"It's worked for as long as we've had it. It cost us £50 for the repair and it's better than it was before.

"Lee (Sara's partner) nearly had a heart attack lifting it down. It's heavy. Apparently the remote control was like a brick, but I can't remember it having one.

"I found a TV licence from 1999 underneath it.

"Loads of customers were messaging. One of them is going for a weekend in Dublin and said he could go on holiday happy; now he knows that the telly's okay.

"We might squeeze another 50 years out of it."

Museum Vaults customers have watched many an historic event on its television but not, as has been facetiously suggested, the Christmas message of Edward III.