Alan ‘Doddy’ Dodds.

 

“Ah’ve never sin this bugger in one piece,” Alan observed in his rich Cumbrian accent when first he clapped eyes upon Bluebird’s scantily clad frame more than fifty years after he’d first worked on her.
As a 19 year-old apprentice panel beater for J Bendall & Sons of Carlisle, and under the watchful eye of Leo Villa, Alan did his bit first time around helping to make a silk purse of Donald’s sow’s ear of a boat during the summer of 1955.
In more recent times, Alan became one of the very few, master blacksmiths worldwide invited to contribute a piece for the gates of the Globe Theatre in London for which he crafted a fabulous bunch of steel crab apples – so how he ended up in a workshop full of amateurs is anyone’s guess.
But it’s as well that he did.
With a trick of the trade for every situation, a simple way of doing everything and a treasure trove of handy tools, Doddy is definitely one of the lads.