Wood carver now fired up for challenge closer to home

And the 55-year-old is making sure it has been worth the wait, creating an intricate carving on a fireplace for his home based on the work of famous sculptor and craftsman Grinling Gibbons, whose work adorned the elegant residences of the late 17th century England.

Mr Gamble, of Acaster Malbis, York, who works on major projects for modern houses and ecclesiastical renovations, is creating his fireplace from pine and limewood.

His design includes fruit and flowers fashioned from wood.

“Limewood is lovely to carve with. It’s a hardwood but it’s a very tight grain and you can carve very fine detail into it,” Mr Gamble added.

“I have done a lot of carvings for fireplace firms over the years and I thought that I would make a fairly special one for myself.

“This is a really special fireplace and I have just gone over the top on it, there’s a lot of work on it by the time I have finished there will be a couple of months work on it.”

Mr Gamble is fitting the project in around his day job, spending weekends and his leisure time working on his labour of love.