An Colyton wheelwright has been awarded an MBE in the Queens Birthday Honours List.

Gregory Rowland, 52, who lives in Honiton, has been awarded an MBE as Master Wheelwright for services to heritage crafts in the latest Queens Birthday Honours list, announced in line with the Queens Paltnuim Jubilee, which starts tomorrow with a two-day bank holiday celebration.

Gregory is one of the last wheelwrights in the UK to use the traditional methods he does. He trained as an apprentice with his father, Mike who started the business in 1964.

Gregory Rowland told the Herald: "When the letter first came in, telling me I'd been awarded an MBE, I thought it was a joke, I had to check it was right. I'm just humbled to be put forward and to top it off the Queens Platinum Jubilee birthday celebration is just really special."

"The official news comes out in the Gazette, a London based paper on Friday and that's when we get called up to travel to Buckingham Palace to accept our award."

"We were only a small wheelwrights company in the country, I never thought we would win such a high award."

The company, Mike Rowland & Son Wheelwrights and Coachbuilders, which he now runs, has held a Royal Warrant since 2005 and they are one of only two companies that look after the carriages for HM The Queen.

Gregory, as well as being a wheelwright, is a trained blacksmith, joining the trade after a five-year stint in the army as a mechanic fixing Land Rovers. He's been in the business for 31 years in the wheelwright trade and trains one of only two Wheelwrights apprentices in the country.

Since joining the trade, he has put huge effort into furthering wheelwrighting and has been at the forefront of the drive to stop the decline in the number of wheelwrights.

He was instrumental in developing the syllabus and training methods for wheelwright apprentices.

Gregory has been an active member of the Wheelwrights Company and its Craft Committee and he was made a Liveryman in 2011.