DIE-HARD Wanderers fan Tony Cornwell was over the moon when Kevin Davies made his England debut.

But the news got even better for the boss of Anthony Cornwell Framing when the Whites skipper asked him to frame his first England shirt.

Mr Cornwell, who set up his one-man business 10 years ago after starting it as a hobby, said: “I have framed some really interesting items over the years but framing Kevin Davies’s England shirt was a real privilege.

“I had not met Kevin before but I had agreed to do some work for his KiDs of Bolton charity.

“As a die-hard Wanderers fan it was a real thrill watching him make his England debut.

“It really didn’t cross my mind that I may have the opportunity to frame his shirt so I was elated when he gave me the job.”

The former engineer has also supplied framed clothing for actor and comedian Paddy McGuinness and Wanderers’ stars Gary Cahill and Ali El Habsi, as well as Premier League referee Mark Halsey.

Over the past decade, Mr Cornwell has built up the framing business supplying a variety of wooden and modern frames to both commercial and private clients.

He makes frames from scratch for portrait photographs, contract frames for industry, specialist framing for memorabilia dealers and collectors as well as a comprehensive contract framing service and has recently invested in a computerised mount cutter to widen the scope of what he offers.

Mr Cornwell offers more than 500 styles, colours and size combinations and can frame anything from a small photograph to large paintings, different sizes of memorabilia and sports shirts and other objects.

He is based in the Bolton Enterprise Centre, off Deane Road, which is currently operated by the council and is home to a number of small businesses like his own.

But now the local authority wants to sell the building to interested parties as a going concern.

Mr Cornwell said: “I’m not too worried about it as it could be good for the centre to have a new owner and I would encourage other small businesses to come here because of the low overheads.”

Before he set up his framing business he worked at Hick Hargreaves for 23 years, ending up as materials manager.

After outsourcing castings to the Czech Republic Hick Hargreaves was then taken over by a company which had an existing manufacturing facility on the same site as the castings foundry and it spelled the end of the line for the well-known Bolton company.

There used to be 600 men working at Hick Hargreaves in Bolton and the site is now occupied by Sainsbury’s supermarket.

Mr Cornwell added: “I took redundancy and decided to take up picture framing years ago which I originally did as a hobby.

“I suppose, looking back, the things that I liked best at school were woodwork and technical drawing.

“These are the main skills that I now use in my day-today activities, although I now have the advantage of the latest in computerised mount cutting technology.

“Originally I worked from home but it soon became necessary to move out to a workshop.

“I had seen the Bolton Enterprise Centre during my Enterprise Training and was impressed with the facilities.”