Meet the North Yorkshire woman who restores garden gnomes

BBC News

30-04-2025

It sounds like the start of a fairytale - at the end of a country garden, there's a hut full of little men in brightly coloured clothes, looking a little shabby around the edges.They're all here, patiently waiting for a summer makeover from Caroline Smale, Great Ouseburn's gnome restorer, who is happy to give them a fresh lick of paint for free.It's little more than a month before the North Yorkshire village's annual Garden Festival, and residents are keen to give their garden gnomes some much-needed TLC. "I help get the gnomes into the best possible shape. I don't mind being known as doing daft things, as a bit of a quirky person. It's just a bit of fun," says Caroline of her restoration service.
Hidden among the pots and plants in the garden is her own collection of around 40 figurines in different shapes and sizes. Caroline and her husband started to receive gnomes as presents from friends as "a bit of a joke" but over the years, they've become an important fixture of village life.One has the job of mascot for the ladies' garden golf team, while others are involved in a long-running, and yet unresolved, mystery."It hasn't happened for a year or so, but the gnomes used to disappear and end up in someone else's garden and I'd have to go and collect them."I have a suspect but he will only say the gnomes followed him. But I always know where they are. A gnome will always come home."The restoration workshop was launched last year after she posted on the Great Ouseburn Facebook page, which is the place that "all the mad things that go on in the village" get advertised, according to Caroline.
She was "quite surprised" by the response to her offer."It's been great because I've met loads of new people in the village; there are always people moving in that you don't know."Then they'll come round to the festival, so it works really well to raise interest, make money for the village and have a great day."Making sure to document the before and after, Caroline restores each gnome to its former glory, taking up to two days to finish each one. Her only request is that gnome-owners make a donation to the Great Ouseburn Garden Festival fund.The annual event sees residents open their gardens for the public to explore, alongside food stalls, performing choirs and classic car displays.
Caroline will soon be hard at work painting in preparation for this year's event, which takes place on 1 June. This time her services have even been promoted on the festival's event page, meaning she could be busier than ever. However despite the steady stream of gnomes in need of a makeover, she doesn't think the village is under any threat of being overrun. "I don't think we've got any more than average – but I think maybe we've got a little more interest," she adds."It's just good fun. The gnome painting workshop is now open in my summerhouse. People can come round, drop their gnomes off and come back and collect them later, all spruced up."
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