ARTIST blacksmith Lawrence Walker is doing what he always wanted.

Responsible for the stunning set of new benches in Hereford's Eign Gate, the young designer maker has picked his head up, having worked flat out for the last five years.

A graduate of Hereford's prestigious Holme Lacy College course in blacksmithing, Lawrence decided to stick around in the city that has become home.

From Cornwall, he spent nine years travelling the globe with the Army, before deciding on a change of career.

Research pointed him in the direction of Hereford to pursue his goal, and the application to Herefordshire Technical College was submitted from Canada - his only inkling of the city, that it was home to the SAS.

"Hereford was the only place to come, because of the facility and the history," he said.

He turned up to find lodgings on Bodenham Road, where the landlady liked him because 'he stood up straight'.

He got work strawberry picking to get some sunshine and enjoy himself before getting weekend and part-time hours with a local pipe corporation as a welder, for which he trained in the Army.

"It meant I could eat meat and drink nice beer," he said.

Six months into setting up his own business, based at Rotherwas, he was an innocent party in a car accident that left him with a broken back.

"I didn't know if I'd be able to continue," he said, making the decision to sell his home to keep his workshop.

"When you leave college it's all ideals and bubbles but you have to graft to pay bills."

A couple of big jobs, including gates for an arcade in Worcester, kept him afloat.

"I expected to make slightly smaller stuff to begin with, but I was happy with that. I've got a good background in fabrication.

"The good thing about the Worcester job was that is was not a bolt-on extra but thought of at the building stage which means you can have a lot more fun with the design."

His portfolio to date includes work for Leatherhead's new piazza-style town centre.

The call went out nationally for the Eign Gate re-design and Lawrence was one of three blacksmiths short-listed, each of whom was paid to come up with a concept design.

"The council has been very supportive...they've done it the right way, the way it should be done," he said.

Not keen on drawing, he delivered an actual bench end to the council offices but when I ask whether he thinks it was this gesture which clinched him the job, "I like to think it was my design," comes the riposte.

Lawrence was encouraged to exhibit at last month's Contemporary Craft Fair at Hereford Courtyard, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

"People recognised my work straight away and I got plenty of feedback about the benches" he said. Seeing his finished work in Hereford gives him butterflies.

"I like Hereford and I'm staying," he said. "It's beautiful and the industrial resource of the Black Company is brilliant. It's quite frightening to be part of a regeneration scheme and to be forward thinking.

"With the wealth of history in ironwork and arts in the area, Herefordshire Council chose what the people of Hereford deserve, something hand-crafted and locally made."