IF YOU were a visitor to the popular Lowther Park Visitor Attraction, which closed in 2001, you may wonder what happened to Noe-Noe and Garry - the clown double act who performed and ran the circus show. While Noe-Noe has retired, Garry, his son, has gone on to begin his own timber business near Stainton village, on the outskirts of Penrith.

Woodturning, and creating with timber, has long been a hobby for Garry. So when approaching his local rural business advisers for possible business support and grants to turn his recreation into a wage-earner, he was filled with a certain amount of trepidation Garry said: "David Foster from Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency has been tremendous in his help and guidance. I wasn't sure how this type of business would be viewed, but I've had nothing but support from CREA, and also the Department for Enviroment, Food and Rural Affairs, and marketing help from the North West Farm Tourism Initiative".

Self-taught Garry says he has always been interested in wood-turning but, like many others, he began finding it difficult to get the timbers he needed, especially the wood blanks' used by turners on wood lathes. So he set about looking around Cumbria for the raw supplies he needed, and was surprised by what he discovered.

He said: "We now source 90 per cent of our raw materials direct from Cumbria's indigenous woodlands, and 80 per cent of our sales go outside the county. We now have customers spread across Britain, from Cornwall to Edinburgh.

"In terms of job creation, we've secured two jobs and created two more".

G&S Timber-Crafts certainly seem to be doing their bit for Cumbria's balance of payments. It largely sells two types of timber: blanks' for decorative wood-turning - bowls, candlesticks etc and planks' for furniture, and kitchen making. The biggest trunk of timber handled to date is a 6,000 cubic feet of oak from the Hutton Hall Estate near Skelton in Cumbria.

The firm has also recently taken delivery of a new 60 ins bandsaw which can handle most large logs, and serves other woodworkers in the area. Those craftsmen who want to use their own timber from which to make their own furniture.

G&S Timber-Crafts also stocks specialist timbers from South Africa and Australia. The British timbers are mainly London Plane, Walnut, Acacia, and naturally seasoned outside in open-sided stores for at least two years in the old fashioned way. Then it is goes into a computerised timber-drying kiln, pre-programmed for each type of wood.

It's all amazingly high-tech for such a basic and earthy skill; a skill probably as old as mankind.

Garry said: "I enjoy the basic process of wood being worked and nurtured, and prepared for another life after being properly seasoned. If properly handled, the timber which goes into making traditional items, will last many centuries."

It's all quite a long way removed from the life he and his father once knew, as entertainers in a travelling circus. Garry was, as they say, born under the big top, to the Stevenson family of traditional circus folk. He describes it as a romantic life which took him on journeys across Europe and beyond, and began his entertaining career with the famous Billy Smart's Circus.

He met his wife Joy on the road', and she joined the travelling life before they settled in Cumbria some 20 years ago. Garry reads music perfectly, and plays bagpipes; classical, electric, and flamenco guitar; saxophone; clarinet; and musical bottles. He's also an expert juggler, and all throughout his entertaining career he practised a solid eight hours every day either musical, or juggling.

He reckons his biggest performing day was for the British royalty, and probably his most high profile was being part of the Maxwell House coffee TV adverts.

"We like it here in Cumbria. There's a lot less traffic, and there's room to breath. We decided, if we'd settle anywhere, we would settle in Cumbria, and it's certainly proved worthwhile."