"I have a black belt in the Yorkshire martial art of Sheduko!” laughs Stephen Sharp.

In his spacious shed, close to his Oakworth home, Stephen spends time repairing and restoring violins and carving coppiced wood and old animal bones to create shepherd’s crooks and walking sticks.

Fiddlesticks – the name he has given his pastime that he hopes will eventually become a cottage enterprise – was born out of his love of music and his fascination with the traditional craft of stick-making.

The umbrella holder in the doorway of his beautiful converted farmhouse bears a collection of his creations. Placed among them is his own shepherd’s crook which he takes out on his walks and a hiking pole he made for his wife, Christine, who accompanies him on outings.

Surrounding their idyllic home are windswept hills where walkers can roam – a perfect landscape for Stephen, 54, to resurrect a bygone craft.

“I am Yorkshire through and through, and there is a huge history of sticks,” says Stephen.

“It goes back to the hill farmers. The crook was developed to control sheep and lambs, but the basic ones they used every day were not particularly fancy. They made these to take to market, and through that grew a craft of making lovely objects.”

Stephen has been making crooks and sticks for six years and has won prizes for his creations at local shows.

“I’d always wanted to make shepherds’ crooks and walking sticks. I like the look and feel of them and they are purely natural.

“They are made out of sustainable wood, of coppiced wood, and the horn comes from animals who no longer need them,” he explains.

Stephen has been commissioned to make sticks by family and friends for special occasions.

Moving to Oakworth gave him the space he needed to build his own garden workshop, and it is here where he has spent much of his time since taking early retirement from the telecommunications company where he worked for more than 30 years.

A pot-bellied stove – a gift from his family – keeps him warm in winter as he plucks the files and chisels neatly arranged along his workbench to carve, shape and create.

Beneath the batch of horse hair strung from above, a row of violins wait patiently for attention.

Repairing and restoring violins is another string to Stephen’s bow. He repairs those, too – hence the horse hair. Stephen says there are between 100 and 170 hairs in each violin bow, and each hair is individually picked for quality.

A self-taught musician, his knowledge of the violin has expanded since he started playing at six.

He first played the instrument with the Airedale Symphony Orchestra, recognised as one of the leading community orchestras in the country.

Stephen was often called upon to carry out the odd repair for his fellow musicians, and over the years, through word of mouth, demand for his skills has grown.

Stephen also buys violins through internet marketplace eBay. The Guseto violin he plays with a beautiful carved head was partly in pieces when he bought it.

Stephen explains violins tend to be made from maple and good-quality spruce. “It’s the top that makes all the difference, and it has to be top-quality spruce because that is the sounding board,” he says.

Being a musician gives Stephen an advantage when it comes to repairing the instruments. “I know that it sounds right when I have finished it,” he smiles.

Hailing from a family of people who worked in practical professions, Stephen has worked with his hands since being a boy and fondly recalls putting model planes together.

He says he loves creating both fiddles and sticks because he is working with natural products.

“Everything is recycled, nothing is new. And it is a way of getting special violins and bows back into use and old violins properly set up and restored,” says Stephen. “There is something beautiful at the end of it, but, most importantly of all, they have a purpose – and that is the bit I like.”