New gates into the Trowbridge war memorial have been unveiled after a metalwork student designed and made them as part of his GCSE coursework.

Luciano Williamson, a pupil at St Augustine’s Catholic College, was given the task of remodelling the gates ahead of an inspection of Trowbridge Park by South West in Bloom judges.

The 16-year-old started the project last September and the finished creation was unveiled earlier this month.

Luciano’s project began after the school’s head of design and technology, Rob Faulkner, heard about the redesign idea.

Mr Faulkner said: “Luciano has a passion for metalwork and was very keen to do a project for the school or the local community. It was decided that he incorporate this as part of his GCSE resistant materials coursework and it would, therefore, benefit both him and the town.

“Luciano started by looking at existing war memorials and, in particular, any gates which were present.

“After meeting with several people from the council, armed forces and emergency services, he drew up a list of what people liked and set about designing the gates.

“Luciano produced a scale prototype of the gates, which helped him to decide manufacturing techniques, and then started to make the gates.

“He produced a number of formers and jigs to get the shapes required for the design, but, after successfully making the main structure of the gates, realised that the equipment at the school couldn’t generate enough heat to form the intricate details required for the design.

“It was decided that we would have to outsource this part.”

Trowbridge firm Hiscock Engineers stepped in and helped carry out the work out for Luciano.

Mr Faulkner said: “It was quite fitting that this local company was able to help out, because they had created the temporary gates that were there previously.”

In Bloom judges were taken on a three-hour tour of the town, meeting community leaders, schoolchildren, organisations, retailers and churches, to see how they have contributed to this year’s competition. The war memorial was among the stops during their visit.