WORCESTERSHIRE designer blacksmith Joshua De Lisle is a firm believer in serendipity – fortunate co-incidences or happy accidents.

He’s been on the receiving end of one or two in his 26 years, which have lifted him from miserable times at school to presenting the Queen in 2012 with a Diamond Jubilee gift he created.

Joshua, who lives in the Teme Valley at Shelsely Walsh, near Worcester, has dyslexia and believes as a child he also had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

He said: “The education system did not suit me because I have dyslexia and potential ADHD. It was particularly difficult. I was always making things as a kid and I was hard working but when it came to academia I just could not process it.”

Joshua began to believe those people who did not expect him to achieve anything and he left school having failed his exams.

“We did not do much practical stuff at school. Everyone was forced to go down the same route but not everyone is the same. I really struggled at school and did have mild depression,” he added.

However he was interested in battle re-enactment and the medieval era and discovered blacksmithing was still a trade today.

“I did a week’s work experience with a blacksmith and I really enjoyed it. I connected with it. For the first time I believed I could do something.

“I also discovered there was something quite profound about metalwork. All the technical advancements started with the blacksmiths because they were able to process metal. They brought us out of the Stone Age.”

The young blacksmith said his spiritual beliefs helped him to find the right path and he said a simple prayer asking for help.

The Herefordshire and Ludlow College Rural Crafts Centre at Holme Lacy accepted him without any qualifications for a three-year blacksmith and metalwork course.

“From that point on I redirected myself and focused and sought wisdom from people who were successful. I was determined that I wasn’t going to waste my life and that blacksmithing was a chance for me to have a new beginning with endless possibilities.

“At the end of college I did particularly well. I got several awards but I did not know what to do about it.” Once again he asked for help.

He discovered one of his college tutors rented a workshop and was going to leave it. He offered it to someone else who, in turn, offered it to Joshua.

Aged 18, he had just graduated from the National School of Blacksmiths and was setting up his own business. But he did not believe he had enough work and found the experience very stressful. Again he turned to his spiritual beliefs and asked for help.

Through his girlfriend (now his wife) Hannah he met the owner of a horse she had looked after. He was an assistant park manager at Richmond Park in London and told Joshua they were looking for blacksmiths to submit designs for some new park gates marking the tercentenary of St Paul’s Cathedral.

He thought it would be a good opportunity and practice for Joshua, although he didn’t expect him to succeed because of his inexperience.

Joshua did some designs which he submitted and he was selected in preference to other public art sculptors and well-seasoned professional blacksmiths by the Richmond Park Manager, the Goldsmith family (which donated the gates), a team of blacksmiths, a structural engineer, Richmond Park supporters and other staff from The Royal Parks.

“I did some designs and the committee chose me to do it. I just had a go at it and what I thought would take six months took two years. I finished and installed the Way Gates and since then things have snowballed.”

The gates are on the edge of the park’s Sidmouth Woods and can be seen from the King Henry's Mound telescope. St Paul's is connected to Richmond Park through the protected 10 mile view of the cathedral from King Henry's Mound.

The gates depict oak branches and acknowledge acclaimed English architect Sir Christopher Wren, who designed St Paul’s, through a small wren sitting low down in the foliage. A robin sings from the opposite branch.

Following that Joshua was invited to present a gift to the Queen on behalf of The Royal Parks for her Diamond Jubilee. He explained that there are a lot of stag beetles in Richmond Park so he designed and made a boot puller in the shape of a stag beetle.

This caught the eye of the Lord Lieutenant of Greater London Sir David Brewer who accompanied the Queen, and he commissioned a weather vane. Joshua was then recommended to the Countess of Chichester and from that was commissioned to create a tubular bell housing for a large portable bell to be used in the cathedral.

That is one of his current projects and he particularly relishes difficult assignments. “I do not believe in impossible. There is always a solution but it is not always obvious. There is actually not a lot you cannot do with metal,” explained Joshua.

“The dyslexia has helped me. No one is disadvantaged with dyslexia. When I first went to college I did a test about how you learn and I was kinaesthetic. I learn by doing, by practically feeling a piece with my hands.

“I fail quite a lot but I learn from it. It has taken thousands of hammer blows of practising to get where I am now.”

He also made award-winning horse sculptures which was displayed in in the royal entrance hall of the Royal Windsor Show in 2013. He also became National Blacksmithing champion in 2013 and was made an associate of the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths.

The talented designer blacksmith, who working from Collington, near Bromyard, is also passing on his knowledge and skills to others. He started teaching first year students while he was in his third year at college and has arranged to do some teaching at a school in Malvern. He also hopes to extend that to people involved with the Good Soil Company based at Top Barn Farm, Holt, near Worcester.

“People have given me opportunities and I have always been passionate about encouraging people, who were in the situation I was in, to give them opportunities,” said Joshua.