T IM Prosser will never forget a day in August 1952, which had a rather strange and profound effect on him.

He came downstairs one Sunday morning in his home in Newport, Wales and found his father sitting in a chair reading the Sunday Pictorial.

As he looked over his father's shoulder, he saw a dramatic picture of a devastated English village suffering in the aftermath of tragic flood.

The village was Lynmouth and although 10-year-old Tim had no connection with Lynmouth he remembers quite vividly bursting into uncontrollable tears and becoming incredibly emotional as he looked at the photograph. Tim had no idea back then as he stared at the photograph that this was to be the start of a journey, which would one day take him to Lynmouth to live.

A month after seeing the Lynmouth image of the flood Tim was diagnosed with diabetes and moved from his family home to spend the next two years in a diabetic home in West Sussex.

He only returned home for school holidays and Tim believes the experience taught him to be independent and to come to terms with his illness.

"I never treated my diabetes as a handicap and knew I was as good as the next boy and could achieve anything I wanted to and that is an adage I have held fast too throughout my life," he said.

After leaving school Tim got a job training as an instrumentation engineer. He met his wife Marcia in 1961 and together they went on to have four children, Elizabeth, Louise, James and Michael.

Marcia stayed at home to look after the children while Tim carried on carving out a career in engineering. They moved to Bristol for a brief period and when they returned to Wales, Tim branched out as a pottery engineer and enjoyed visiting schools and studio potteries.

Urban living was not something Tim ever really relished but as the family was settled and work was plenty, Tim was quite content with his lot until a terrifying event in 1990 made him and Marcia realise they were living in the wrong environment.

"We were sitting at home one evening watching TV when eight burly men smashed down our front door.

"It soon became clear to us that the men were undercover police officers attempting to carry out a drugs raid but had unfortunately entered our house by mistake."

The chief of police returned the next day with flowers, chocolates and profuse apologies for their mistake but Marcia and Tim were so traumatised by the ordeal they decided to leave Wales and move to Lynton where they had both enjoyed holidays.

They sold their house and Tim's prize joy, a beloved classic car, a 30-year-old Riley and with additional money which Marcia had inherited following her father's death, they moved to Lynton and bought a fruit and vegetable business.

What they lacked in business sense they made up for with their enthusiasm and hard work. Despite working seven days a week, the downturn in the economy hit them hard and they had to shut up shop two years after opening.

They returned to Wales without a penny to their name but their love for each other saw them through this bleak period in their life.

Shortly after returning to Wales, Tim told Marcia that he was going to make a full-scale replica model of the village of Lynmouth prior to the flood, as a gift to the village and set about researching his project.

In 1995 they came back to Lynton when their son James married a local girl and held the reception in Lynton.

One of the locals asked Tim if he would ever return to the village and he told him that he would return immediately if there was work.

A week after the wedding Tim received a call from Ken Hardings offering Marcia a job managing his fudge shop and Tim a job managing his wood shop and they were thrilled to have the opportunity to return to the village which they both loved. They started their new job in 1996 and carried on working until they both retired three years ago.

It was also in 1996 that Tim decided to start work on his model and when Marcia asked him how long he thought it would take, he had no idea.

"I had never built a model before but I guessed it would be a winter project so Marcia let me take over the dining room."

Marcia might have changed her mind, however, had she known that it would take him three years to painstakingly create a beautifully hand-crafted replica village of Lynmouth. The model is now housed in Lynton Memorial Hall in the summer and St John the Baptist Church in Lynmouth during the winter.

The 12ft long village is testament to the amount of research Tim underwent to create such a magnificent replica of Lynmouth before the 1952 flood disaster.

As well as being a labour of love, the model has raised thousands of pounds over the years for local charities and continues to do so today.

Tim and Marcia cannot ever imagine leaving their "spiritual home" which Tim says gives them both "a real feeling of belonging".

At 67, Tim still has plenty of energy left, despite suffering from a heart attack a few years ago, to share with his beloved village.

He still organises the local Scarecrow Festival, which he set up five years ago and is a trustee of the Memorial Hall.

Tim is also chairman of the Lyn Valley Society which is made up of about a dozen members, has raised £115,000 primarily towards the cost of refurbishing the town's much loved Grade 2 listed town hall.

Last year, in conjunction with the town council, members contributed £35,000 toward the cost of installing a new heating system in the building. The main bulk of funding is raised by volunteers in the second hand bookshop, which is situated in the town hall and open to locals and visitors.

Although Tim spends an enormous amount of time working in a voluntary capacity for the good of Lynmouth, he always manages to find time with his classic motor car, a Riley replacement similar to the one he originally sold to move to Lynton all those years ago — a special car for a very special man.