Sam Lovegrove became popular through the hit British television series entitled “Shed and Buried.” He was often described as the engineering genius in the reality show, who loved to go around with his best pal, visiting private sheds in various parts of the UK. Their aim was to buy, restore and sell vintage cars and other memorabilia, but when the second half of the latest season was aired in November 2022, fans wondered why Sam wasn’t in it, many thinking that he was fired, or that he quit the show.
Get to know Sam Lovegrove
By choice, Sam Lovegrove didn’t like to open up about his personal life, even if he was a public persona. No one knew where he studied, or where he initially set up his car building and restoration business; the public only knew that he had a wife and four children. However, the mechanical engineer had an impressive professional resume, such as having been involved with the Gemini Accident Repair Centre Limited, working on transmission and suspension designs. He also spent time helping build race cars, including the Corvette C7R Le Mans and the Honda NSX as well as Aston Martin and Jaguar. It was reported that his main headquarters was situated in Cornwall, England.
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All about “Shed and Buried”
Britain had been known to hold many treasures of the past, as London itself was well over 2000 years old. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if more collectibles and memorabilia could be found in sheds around the country, and this had been the front and center of the reality-TV series “Shed and Buried.” Sam Lovegrove met Henry Cole in a documentary TV show in 2013, and they have since become close friends.
What was it all about?
Popular motorcycle enthusiast Henry Cole and ace mechanic/engineer Sam Lovegrove partnered to look into sheds around Britain. The two best friends’ main goal was to see if they could find rare, vintage vehicles and unique or valuable items that they could restore and sell. Aside from being a biker, Henry knew how to wheel and deal, while Sam could easily spot the flaws in the vehicle, as he had an encyclopedic knowledge of everything mechanical. It could be any type of vehicle or other collectible – as long as they felt that they could gain something from it, they would try to haggle a deal with the shed’s owner.
A typical shed-digging day for Sam and Henry
Most people would wake up early to beat the traffic to go to work, but Sam and Henry weren’t most people. With Sam in the driver’s seat of their small RV or camping trailer, they would travel in a leisurely manner to reach their target shed of destination. As they met with the shed owner, they would ask if everything inside the shed was for sale, with the common answer being ‘all of it for the right price.’ With the owner’s permission, the two would look around the shed and focus on the items that were interesting to them. Henry had the ability to look for something that they could easily put up in the market, and Sam would try to spot problems with the items. After they rummaged through the shed, they would return to their camping trailer and discuss what they found. There were times Sam wanted to buy something for himself, or Henry would quickly buy things that Sam hadn’t properly checked. They could end with something worthless which wouldn’t be good for their business.
TV premiere and its accessibility
“Shed and Buried” made its TV debut on 24 March 2015, and was initially accessible on Sky1, one of the oldest cable TV companies in the UK. It was also available on Travel Channel UK and became one of the longest-running shows there. The show was canceled in 2018, but there was no official word on the reason behind it. However, to the delight of the fans, it returned to the small screen via another streaming platform, Discovery Plus. It was as if it had never been out of the regular programming, with the new season presented as the third for continuity purposes. The fourth season, which aired from 3 May 2022 to 20 December 2022, was accessible through a new TV channel called Quest, a British and Irish free-to-air TV channel that operated under the Warner Bros Discovery network.
Sam’s four seasons with “Shed and Buried”
The reality-TV series loyal viewers appreciated the partnership of Sam and Henry as they could be at odds with one another when they selected the items that they wanted to buy, but managed to compromise over the four seasons of the show. Here are some of the most interesting finds that Sam Lovegrove helped restore in “Shed and Buried”:
A red Villiers motorcycle found at the back of a shed
One of the best antique restorations that Sam and Henry did was when they bought a red Villiers Motorcycle. When Sam conducted his usual vehicle check-up, he said that most of it wasn’t broken, but they needed to change the filters as it had been in the shed for more than 50 years. He identified some oddities, such as the headlight being mounted upside down, a badly painted exhaust downpipe, and a foot peg bent on the wrong side; there weren’t any serious problems with the engine. Henry was glad to hear it, because fewer problems meant less expense and more profit when they sold it. They were even more excited that the test ride was successful, after being stuck inside a shed gathering dust and cobwebs for quite a long time. Sam was proud of getting it to start immediately, saying ‘That was genuinely a first kick starter.’
A Ford Galaxie 500 police car
The moment Sam and Henry entered the shed in Devon during the fourth season opener, they immediately noticed a police car, a Ford Galaxie 500. It was part of a series of full-sized cars that were manufactured by Ford in 1962 to compete with rivals Chevrolet’s Impala and Plymouth’s Belvedere, which were both popular at that time; the Chicago Police once owned a fleet of them. The only question that they had in mind was if it was a genuine police car. When Sam went in to check the interior, he easily noticed many hints that it could be fake, such as having no gun rack, no glass partition between front and back, and no radio or original light switches. Sam said it was originally a civilian sedan that was made to look like the old police car. However, Henry knew they could get something out of it, so they haggled with the owner and eventually went home with it, along with a few vintage Coca-Cola bottles, trays, and a cooler, which were around 20 years old.
Sam set to work on the vintage police car after it was delivered the next day. He replaced the fuel line with the correct size of tubes, and fixed the rotor on the distributor. It didn’t take long for him to let Henry conduct a test drive of about 10 yards/meters, which it was successful. They hosed it down with low-pressured water so as not to disturb the paint too much, buffed it, and sprayed it with silicon shine to bring out the color. They also changed the tires, and lastly, they placed a blue beacon light on the roof to complete the look. A collector came to their shop to look at the vintage beverage memorabilia, but ended up with the Ford Galaxie as well.
Sam pulled a big surprise from a Cornwall shed
The owner said that his collection started with an old 1955 Cadillac, and then a cousin offered to get him some more and it just became a hobby from then on. Just like Henry and Sam, the owner said he collected with his best pal who was a mechanic. They saw lots of Buicks and Chevys, which they liked, but the prices were too steep for them. Eventually, when they were haggling and couldn’t find the right price, Sam surprised Henry by including the Ford F100 pickup truck that he was leaning on in the yard into the deal. It was something that he and Henry never looked at, but Sam took a liking to it on the spot. So instead of getting the one they originally wanted, they ended up with the pickup and an ugly duckling of a vintage Cushman motorcycle. They planned to flip the F100 without spending too much, and sell it as quickly as they could. They did a quick makeover, and found a buyer who was also going to sell it to another collector.
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Vintage motorbikes from the workshops of the National Motorcycle Museum
After being motorcycle enthusiasts for more than 20 years, Sam and Henry were invited to take a look at the inner workshops of The National Motorcycle Museum, located in Birmingham. They were ecstatic as they had visited many times, but were never allowed to go beyond the museum before. On the way there, they thought that they might not bring anything home with them, but said that some items might be duplicates already, so they’d still have a chance to buy something.
They saw many rare British-manufactured motorcycles, and ended up wheeling and dealing on a BSA Motorbike, which was once upon a time the biggest motorcycle manufacturer not only in Britain but in the world. It was launched in 1910 as an offshoot of the Birmingham Small Arms Company Ltd, which produced firearms during World War I. They’d manufactured dozens of models of motorcycles from budget specials to sports bikes, just like the 1927 350 Flat Tanker that they bought from the museum workshop. They also managed to include a Calthorpe 2 Stroke motorbike into the deal, which was produced in the same era, with another vintage motorbike they saw outside the workshop called Francis-Barnett. The company was founded in 1919, and specialized in low-cost motorbikes and although it closed shop in 1966 due to heavy competition, it had developed a small but loyal following over the years. In the end, after fixing the BSA and the Francis-Barnett, they were sold off to an antique shop owner. They would earn more if they decided to sell the Calthorpe, as Sam already had a buyer in mind, but Henry wanted to keep it.
Farm vehicles in Herefordshire
In the heart of Herefordshire, Sam and Henry went to a farmer’s shed that contained an eclectic collection. It had 1980s fast Suzuki superbikes, tractors, cars, and other unusual trinkets. The first thing that caught their interest was a post-war era poppy orange-colored Nuffield tractor, which was constructed to help in building the British economy in the late 1940s. Another was a three-wheeled Robin van, which started immediately when Sam turned the key. The Robin Van was introduced in 1963 as a low-cost vehicle for the working man, and today, it has a cult following, regardless of its tendency to easily roll over, and collectors pay so much especially those in perfect condition.
As interesting as they all were, Sam and Henry were more fascinated with the 1930’s vintage trailers they found at the back of the shed – Sam believed all of the parts were original and factory-made. Henry said that they were profitable and Sam agreed since the trailers weren’t so big to be annoying, but just the right size to hold enough objects. After much discussion on what to buy, the two settled for one of the trailers and the orange tractor. Included in the deal they made with the owner was a vintage crow scarer banger, which Sam really liked, because it brought back happy childhood memories.
Sorry been away filming new series for ITV4 and Travel Channel with my mate Sam Lovegrove. called Shed and Buried. pic.twitter.com/7rM9IAWB8r
— Henry Cole (@HenryColeTV) February 26, 2015
A huge loss for a vintage lawnmower
Not all of the deals that Sam and Henry made in “Shed and Buried” turned into a nice profit. For instance, there was a vintage lawnmower that they bought, which Sam thought could easily earn them something. However, when they did some research on it, they found out from an antique catalog that it was being sold for just a fraction of the amount that they paid for it. The good thing about the dynamic duo was that they always somehow turned their unfortunate situation into a laughing matter. Henry said that since the physical shop on the catalog was based in Scotland, anyone would probably spend the same if they included the transportation fees. Sam suggested that they could easily recuperate the money by doing lawns in the neighborhood, after he restored it to working condition.
Sam Lovegrove’s absence in the second half of the fourth season
When the reality-TV series, “Shed and Buried,” returned to TV after the mid-season hiatus, fans wondered why Sam Lovegrove was conspicuously absent from the show. There were no hints of any changes in the cast after the first ten episodes were aired in May 2022, and so several theories were thrown out on social media, which upset many fans of the show.
The mid-season return in November
On 22 November 2022, the 11th episode was aired and Henry Cole presented it with someone else; he was with Fuzzy Townsend, host of another reality-TV show called “Car SOS” aired on National Geographic Channel. Everyone thought that it would only be for an episode or two, but Sam was absent for the whole duration of the second half of the fourth season. There was no problem with Fuzzy being with Henry as he was a favorite of many car enthusiasts, but fans of Sam were upset that no one made a press release regarding his termination or had tendered his resignation from the show.
The explanation for Sam’s absence
In fairness to Henry Cole and his production team, he posted a video discussing Sam’s absence from the show on his official Facebook fan page prior to the airing of the new episode. It just so happened that not every fan of the TV show followed the FB page, and so most of them were clueless about it, especially Sam’s fans, so it took some time before the explanation reached everyone. Apparently, in the video, Henry said that Sam was busy tinkering with two motorcycles that he was restoring at the time of the filming. The engine whisperer needed to focus his time and energy on the restorations, as he had a deadline to meet. Henry also said that Sam would try his best to sneak into some of the episodes if he could, but in the meantime, Fuzzy would travel with him, rummaging through sheds in the remaining episodes of the fourth season.
While it was understandable that some fans would jump to conclusions after Sam’s absence from the show, it was unnecessary to make conspiracy theories out of it that could have worsened the situation. With the kind of friendship that Sam and Henry had shown in their show, some viewers said that it would be quite impossible for the team to split up. They might sometimes be at odds about their choices in every shed that they went into over the years, but it was always a give-and-take situation. It was obvious that they both respected each other’s opinions, and that was the reason why their friendship lasted this long.
