R ICHARD CORNICK has always had a fascination with machinery for as long as he can remember and spent his formative years tinkering with all sorts of machines.

When he was eight years old, to his parents' horror, he stripped down the family lawn mower to find out how it worked and then spent hours with his father trying to put it together again.

As his fascination grew, he continued to strip down some of the household appliances. One day when his father found him attempting to take his mother's washing machine, apart he decided he needed to find his son a project of his own to work on to keep him out of mischief.

His dad's friend had an old Ford Corsair, which was heading for the scrapyard so his dad rescued the car and presented it to ten-year-old Richard with the challenge to get it going again. Richard rose to the challenge but in the process made his three sisters very cross when he dismantled their swing and used it as a hoist to remove the Corsair's engine.

For the next few years, after school and at weekends, Richard and his friend stripped out every bit of the engine and rebuilt it in the hope that it would eventually work. Despite their hard work, the car was never destined to work. "Once we had put all the parts back together and put some water in the engine we discovered there was a crack in the main engine which we could do nothing about," he said.

When he left school at 15, Richard got himself his first motorbike and his days were spent tinkering with the bike. He got his first job as an apprentice engineer for a local agricultural dealer, which he never regarded as work. "I was in my element getting paid to strip down engines and rebuild them for export and I am sure my parents were happy because all their household appliances were safe," he said.

Richard enjoyed his three-year apprenticeship and worked at various engineering companies before finding employment with the Southern Counties Agricultural Trade Society. He spent the next few years repairing lawn mowers for golf courses and laughs as he recalls his first experience with a lawn mower.

In 2000, after spending holidays in the West Country Richard, together with his wife and eight-year-old daughter Hayley, decided to move to Devon for a better quality of life. Richard had one proviso when he started house hunting in Devon. "I wanted a house which had a large workshop so I could carry on tinkering with machines," he said. When the family found a house with a workshop in Saltrens, Monkleigh, they all fell in love with it, sold up their home in Hampshire, and moved immediately.

Richard found work once again working on lawnmower repairs at Mole Valley Farmers and instead of using his workshop for stripping down engines, he started building a model railway. "My neighbour and I built a model railway from scratch and we spent may happy hours drinking beer, putting the world to right and building tunnels and the landscape for the railway," said Richard.

As well as working for Mole Valley Farmers Richard started repairing chainsaws and mowers for local people and built up quite a little business himself before setting up his own business repairing mowers with his wife and daughter.

When his marriage ended last year Richard had to sell the marital home as part of the divorce settlement and found himself starting all over once again. "It was a really difficult period in my life but the fact that my daughter Hayley decided to stay and live with me was a great comfort," he said.

Hayley has inherited her dad's love for machinery after spending many hours as a child watching and helping him as he tinkered with old cars and an old VW camper van. She is now studying Body Work and Refinishing at North Devon College and they are currently working on refurbishing an old mini car together. With Richard's engineering skills and Hayley's bodywork skills, they are hoping the mini will look fantastic when finished.

Richard has now managed to get his life back on track although it has not been easy trying to secure a new mortgage and build up his business he is now looking forward to a bright future with his new partner, Lyn. "It is never easy trying to build a new life and business at 44 but I was determined to give it my best shot," he said.

Richard managed to secure a mortgage and has moved to a new home in Bideford which he shares with Lyn. Together they have set up a new business on Habat Enterprise Park on the Clovelly Road Industrial Estate in Bideford and trade as North Devon Mowers. They have also secured the franchise for the new Mountfield Mower dealership.

It is ironic that the first piece of machinery that Richard ever stripped down is very much part of his life today. Although the design and mechanics of mowers have changed somewhat from the first mower Richard experimented with, he continues to learn new skills and enjoys the challenges of the modern day mower. "Things have definitely moved on from the old fashioned cylinder mowers and rotary mowers with the advent of the more modern mowers which have a lot of electronic components," he said.

Despite having to cope with diabetes from the age of eight and the other challenges Richard has had to face in his life he remains upbeat and positive and said: "I have always believed that people can achieve what they want in life if they are determined. I have never stopped doing what I wanted to despite being diagnosed with diabetes at a very early age. I have enjoyed the personal challenges which I have had over the year as well as the work challenges and am looking forward to a happy future".