Banburyshire man attracts sightseers with his automated, self-crowning King Charles invention

Malcolm Green, 77, built the electric-powered contraption in his Hinton Road workshop out of plywood and old bicycle wheels, reclaimed from the Farthinghoe tip.

“I built the contraption really to celebrate the new King. Whether he would approve or not I don't know but it's all made out of recycled materials and as you can see, it functions quite well,” he said.

“His left hand is shaped with a curve because eventually he's going to hold a black patent handbag, just as a nod to his Mum who always used to carry a handbag.

“It was quite difficult to get everything perfectly timed and the pressures right on the wheels. Sometimes in the rain it'll get a bit of wheel-spin which is not ideal, but in the sun it works very well.”

Mr Green, who trained as a goldsmith, was one of a team of six who created the gold, platinum and diamond coronet when the young Prince Charles was invested as Prince of Wales in 1969.

His Coronation contraption follows a similar machine made for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, which can be seen behind him on the video.

"It is a man cycling with his dog running alongside and it got a lot of admiration from the locals. A lot of people said it cheered them up. And that let to what I should do about the Coronation,” said Mr Green.

"I got most of the materials from the tip. I’ve got all the tools I need for welding, drilling, sawing and bending so it isn’t a problem to knock something up.”

Mr Green’s professional background as a goldsmith and then working on Formula One racing cars has given him amazing problem-solving skills.

“I trained as a goldsmith in Birmingham and then got my first ‘real’ job with the goldsmith and jewellery-maker Louis Osman in Sussex. He emigrated to Ireland and I didn’t want to go so I joined Shadow’s in Northampton, which was, at the time, the highest funded Formula One operation in the country, that became Arrows.

“I stayed there until the end of that and then spent 12 years with Beneton in the new factory at Enstone.”

Video by Kevin Smith.