NORTH Yorkshire man Keith Pickering is thinking of putting 'By Royal Appointment' above his workshop, after one of his hand-crafted walking sticks was brought to the attention of a well-known pensioner.

When the Queen was pictured hobbling along with a standard NHS walking stick after a knee operation, there were gasps of horror from style consultants.

Craftsman Keith, from Helmsley, was surprised to get a phone call from a television company, asking him to send a stick to London to feature on ITV's This Morning.

But he was even more amazed when presenter Fern Britten picked it out as the best one, and promised viewers it would be sent to Her Majesty.

Keith said: "I rang the company up to say that I needed it back - it was far too long for the Queen and I hadn't quite finished it.

"They promised to return it to me first.

"In the meantime, I had to start on another because it was actually a commission for someone else. I contacted them and said they would have to wait a bit longer because their stick had gone to the Queen."

The sycamore and hazel stick, which had a carved horse's head on it, took about six hours to complete at Keith's workshop at Helmsley Walled Garden.

He is used to working for royalty - in the past his creations have been sent to the Kings of Spain and Greece, and Viscount Linley.

Updated: 11:55 Thursday, January 23, 2003