I am a 76-year-old widower living in Worth, on the edge of Crawley in Sussex. I have two sons, a step-daughter and a step-son, and five grandchildren. My wife died in 2020 from complications arising from leukemia. I grew up in Bexhill-on-Sea and received my secondary education at Eastbourne College. I trained as a teacher at Rolle College, Exmouth, and spent my working life as a primary school teacher, mainly in Crawley Down, Sussex. From the 1970s I developed an interest in the iron industry that flourished in the Weald of South-East England, and which I have pursued through my membership of the Wealden Iron Research Group. I gained an MA in Regional and Local History from the University of Brighton in 1993. Peripheral to my 47-year involvement with the Wealden iron group I have also sat on the committees of the Sussex Archaeological Society, CBA South-East (of which I was founding Chairman), the Historical Metallurgy Society and the Antique Metalware Society. In addition I was a parish councillor in Worth, West Sussex, was Secretary of the committee that saw to the building of the Haven Centre in Crawley Down in 1991, and was Chairman of the Trustees of East Grinstead Museum during the construction of its new premises that were completed in 2006. Since retirement from teaching in 2006 I have written two books, on the Wealden iron industry and on iron firebacks, both subjects which continue to fill much of my time. I was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2007 and for nine years I was an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Exeter.