I once knew a guy who worked for an aircraft restoration company. As I understood it, in the case of valuable warbirds, they might retrieve what they could from a jungle, bog,etc, examine the pieces and declare a bakelite knob salvageable. They had drawings for everything and would manufacture an entire aircraft around the knob and market the finished product as a restored warbird along with accompanying price premium.
That may have been a bit of an exaggeration on his part... or not.
It is an exaggeration, for sure. Although # million Pounds seems like a lot of money spent to restore an old bird.
A wing of the CAF, the old Confederate Air Force, that I was a member of, tried to restore an old Navy TBM. It was to cost a lot of money but not in the Millions. We never finished due to lack of licensed aircraft mechanics to oversee the work.