The washboards were breaking apart and who knows how long ago it was varnished as the remains were only a spinkling of dust. I took the boards home and after sanding one piece, the smallest one, decided to repair rather than replace.
After sanding and power wire brushing the front, I put on several layers of clear Bote-Cote epoxy and 3 of Aquacote clear. Also reglued the various broken, cracked and falling-off timbers.
In this pic, I have not added the louvre vent but you can see the difference between old in the pic above and new.