Craftsmen's handiwork paid the bills; VIEWPOINTS.

THE letter from Steve Tarbet in which he mentions Gladstone and the Cow and Snuffers pub took my mind back to my childhood days when my family lived in MidWales.

My father was an ordinary businessman who worked as a whitesmith, working in tin, brass, copper and nickel, whatever people wanted him to make.

But some of them couldn't afford to pay him. These people would pay dad in some of their handiwork and these items were still in our house when I went off to war.

There was a family of carvers in the town which resulted in many items of our furniture being carved in the most extraordinary and beautiful way in exchange for work which dad had carried out for them, and there were three beautiful oil paintings, all in identical brass frames, of Benjamin Disraeli, William Ewart Gladstone and Guiseppe Garibaldi in his well known red cloak (dad hated him!).

I still hold some of dad's handiwork in copper and nickel and have given a few items of copper- work to St Fagans.

Money must have been very short in those far-off times, but that's how many people with a skill existed.

All the carved furniture was distributed within the family when my parents died.

The 1626 carved chest is now with one of my nephews; a brother living in South Wales has the 1810 writing desk and one of my daughters has an octagonal three-legged table with folding top. I hope they never part with them.

Do craftsmen still exchange their skills to put butter on the table?

TG Noel Egerton Heol Cefn Mabli, Lisvane, Cardiff