Retired toy maker, Howard Webster, is “thrilled” Exeter Cathedral has included his beautifully handcrafted replica Royal Crowns in a special exhibition staged to mark the Coronation of King Charles III.

The 82-year-old fashioned three of the Royal family’s most prestigious crowns - including the St Edward’s Crown used at the Coronation on Saturday - as a silversmith student at Leeds College of Art in the early 1970s as a commission for a restaurant.

When the eatery closed down, the crowns were returned to Howard, of Sawpit Lane, Dartington, and over the years he has shown them at village events.

As the Coronation loomed, he decided to fully restore the mini headpieces - which also includes a replica Imperial State Crown and a replica of the Imperial Crown of India - with a view to selling them.

“I restored them fully,” Howard said. “I took all the stones off and polished them all up.

“I also enjoyed rummaging around looking for appropriate stones in markets, including Totnes Market.

“They are a very nice novelty but not really jewellery so it’s a difficult thing to sell. I wrote to a lot of contacts but had no response to that.

“ My son said how about contacting the cathedrals, so I wrote to Truro and Exeter. The guy in charge of heritage at Exeter was thrilled to see my crowns because they were planning to do a display with a range of objects from the people of Devon, including robes and drapes which were commissioned for the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937.”

Howard’s crowns were included in the Exeter Cathedral’s Coronation and Our County exhibition exhbition, which runs until Monday May 15.

“I was absolutely thrilled,” he said. “Ultimately I would like to find a home for them in a National Trust property or one of the Royal Palaces that is now a visitor centre, because I’d like them to be shared and enjoyed and to go back and see them myself and take my kids and grandkids.”

Howard said he enjoyed watching the Coronation.

“I was absolutely delighted by the Coronation.

“I thought the tone was just right and the whole thing was handled beautifully.”