AN enthusiastic young Bewdley inventor has beaten dozens of other hopefuls to clinch a national award.

Ben Jones, 17, of Highclere, was delighted to gain recognition for his new fence-making device when he was judged best entry in the 16-19 age group of the West Midlands region of the Young Engineer for Britain contest.

He also scooped the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) certificate in the Young Persons Awards for Design and Innovation 2006 competition at Avoncroft Museum in Bromsgrove.

The idea for the tense wire device came about while working with his father, David, who is a landscape gardener. Ben often struggled to tension the two strands of barbed and plain wire that top off most stock fences and he decided to invent something to make the job easier.

He said: "The idea was prompted by a product and design course and I decided to try and make something that would be both easier and safer to use.

"One of the attractions of the device is that it can easily be used by one person. Often, it needs two people to tension a fence but, with this, you can do it on your own."

The teenager - who is set to study architectural engineering at Loughborough University later this year - has decided to buy a laptop computer with his prize money from both competitions. His main hope, however, is that after further refinements he will patent his invention.