Well known in a previous life for his evocative paintings of the farming world Norfolk artist and peasant farmer Nick Lyons has taken some serious collateral damage over the last year at the hands of the credit crunchers and evil bankers! But with a much-dwindled queue of customers for his work he has been glad to get another ‘trade’ under his tool belt and is making a brave stand against the onset of terminal penury.

Having collected sheds full of old farm implements – carts and wagons, seed drills and threshing machines - there has always been a need for repairs to the wooden wheels on which they stand. And Nick has been dabbling in the process for the last ten years. But with painting-put-on-hold, and the opportunity of learning alongside an experienced wheelwright close-to-home he has been able to make a more systematic study of the craft, and is now enrolled on the Rural Apprenticeship NETS in Wheelwrighting at Hereford College of Technology – where he spends one week in every six on a course of intensive training.

Born in Ely in 1953, Nick was educated at the King’s School Ely and went on to study at Cambridge School of Art and at West Surrey College of Art and Design. He has a BA (hons) degree in Fine Art.

After a 15 year period as a press photographer - both as a freelance in Cambridgeshire and as a staff photographer on the Eastern Daily Press in Norfolk, he returned to painting full-time in 1993 – by way of celebrating his 40th birthday – and over 15 years sold a great number of paintings to a great number of very grateful customers who have very curiously disappeared without trace.

However, never one to bear a grudge, Nick has enjoyed the carving-out of a new career and in addition to repairing and restoring horse drawn carts and carriages he is making shepherd’s huts and poultry houses for the discerning garden – and country chairs for the cookery-bookery kitchen corner.

I hope you enjoy the new website and see something you like – don’t forget to pass on the address to your family, friends and colleagues.

You can always ask Nick to make you almost anything you like, as he gets very bored very easily and always enjoys making something new.

Nick Lyons.