ONE of Britain's most famous blacksmiths, who started with "nowt but an anvil" and ended up smith to the Queen, has died, aged 81, after a short illness.

Ron Carter, of the Trapp Forge, Simonstone, was brought up in a two-up, two-down in Manchester, but escaped the grind of life in industrial Lancashire to become one of the most prodigious and respected blacksmiths in the country.

He collapsed at his anvil last month and was taken to hospital in Bury but never recovered.

After a stint in the Physical Training Corps of the Royal Marines during the Second World War, Ron met his future wife, Sheila, who was a design student at the Royal College of Art.

It was in the army that he discovered a skill for working with metal while helping to construct an assault course.

He married Sheila and they set up home in Burnley, where Ron became general manager of a small mill. But the slump in the cotton industry saw him forge a new career as a blacksmith and his rise to fame was meteoric.

His important commissions were to include a pair of fire dogs for the Royal grate at Sandringham, as a result of which Prince Charles phoned him personally to request a duplicate set; ironwork at Lancaster and Manchester Cathedrals, the award-winning chandeliers at Manchester Town Hall, the gates at Skipton Castle and Hoghton Tower, the beacon lit by former Prime Minister John Major in 1993 to commemorate Britain's entry into the Europe Union, the famous Lantern Arch at St Alphrege's Church, Greenwich, and the entrance gates to the Honourable Artillery Company headquarters in City Road, London. He also produced pieces of iron art which were to be exhibited in New York, Saudi Arabia and across Europe.

In 1988 he was presented with a special medallion as a Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths. Only a handful of craftsmen in the country have received the coveted award and it was one of many during an illustrious career. He also hosted the first meeting of the Artist Blacksmith Association attended by smiths from across the world at his Simonstone forge.

And he became famous for his demonstrations, including several at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, when he would transform a red-hot piece of metal into a work of art while keeping up an entertaining flow of explanation.

He is survived by his wife, daughter Vicky, who is proprietor of the Lee Carter Health Studio in Clitheroe, and sons Robert, a scientist, John, a blacksmith and structural engineer, Bill, also a blacksmith, and Nicholas, a research biologist for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

His funeral and burial will take place at St John's Church, Read, at 2pm on Friday.

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