A BISHOPS frome craftsman says Prince Charles is "a good bloke", after being invited to a private event at his Gloucestershire home, Highgrove.

Mike Abbott was invited to make the case for good coppice management and the need to preserve ancient skills at a meeting of leading landowners.

Mr Abbott, of Greenwood Cottage, is well known for his training programmes to bring young people into what he calls the "greenwood industry".

It was in recognition of this that the invitation was issued by St James' Palace.

He said: "It was a great honour to receive the invitation to represent the greenwood industry at this important seminar and an enormous boost to the industry to have such a positive demonstration of the Prince's support.

"He was a lovely guy, a good bloke. I asked him if he might be interested in our apprenticeship scheme. We are hoping to have him as a patron."

Mr Abbott, author of Green Woodwork and a member of the Marches Greenwood Network, said: "The seminar provided us with a valuable opportunity to get our message across to some of the most influential landowners in the country, on whom we depend for sourcing our supplies."

Mr Abbott uses age-old techniques, such as the pole-lathe, to create furniture from freshly-felled timber.

Lord Cranborne, former Conservative leader in the House of Lords, chaired the seminar, which was organised by Prince Charles and the Royal Agricultural Society of England.

As a result of the gathering, a working party is to be formed to take the discussions one stage further. The Royal Agricultural Society has also agreed to highlight the work of woodcraftsmen at the Royal Show at Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire.

The Prince of Wales himself, whose estates include hundreds of acres of woodland, has spent time researching the problems faced by woodcraftsmen in finding the right woods and coping with today's marketplace.