Six months ago, the former truckie "semi-retired", and in the search for something to do during a pandemic in full flight, he ventured into his shed.

"I started mucking around in the shed, and I thought 'oh I might make a couple wooden trucks' because I've always been interested in them."

After making a wooden road train for one of his granddaughters, Mr Matthews was hooked - and he wasn't the only one.

As more and more people saw the figures he was making, suddenly Mr Matthews was being hit with request after request.

Half a year later, he has made dozens of the handcrafted figures, which he gives out to friends and family, and has recently started selling online.

"It's blown into something bigger than I expected it to be," he admitted.

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"It just started out of nothing and as soon as somebody rang up and said they wanted me to make them a tow truck, I thought 'oh god i've just retired' ... but I really do enjoy it."

Each of the models take around 30 hours to construct, but for Mr Matthews, the time flies by.

"I sat out there for 10 hours yesterday and didn't even realise it," he said.

"They're enjoyable hours though. I don't do it because I have to, I do it because I want to."

While his creations include figures of birds and pot plant holders, he always comes back to vehicles.

Currently he is working on what he described as his favourite project so far, a model of a vintage car, which he plans to give to his son.

When asked why his figures had proved so popular, Mr Matthews replied: "nostalgia".

"It's a throwback to the wooden toys. Kids don't have toys anymore, this is all my era this stuff."

"A lot of people see it and they say 'oh I haven't seen one of those for years'."

Mr Matthews admitted he wished he had gotten into woodworking earlier in life, but he was thankful to have found something he truly enjoyed.

"I don't know how many people I've come across that are my age and they think to themselves 'oh what am i gonna do' and I thought the same thing myself."

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"But when you sit down, relax and think for a little while, there's always something somebody can do."

"There's always somebody around that wants a hand to do something ... you don't have to sit at home and mope.

Mr Matthews has slowly been making the figures more intricate, and the piece he is currently planning is a open cabin truck, which will include a steering wheel, gear sticks, as well as brakes and accelerators.

His pieces are being sold on the 'Griffith Buy, Swap, Sell, Give away' Facebook group.