These pieces of metalwork may look like they were used to keep a barn door in place, but they had much more personal application for those who once wore them.

They are orthopaedic implants, like the thousands surgeons insert into patients every year to hold battered, broken and failing bodies together.

The reason these have a less than pristine look about them is because, like their former owners, they have just been through a furnace.

They were recovered, by hand, from the ashes of the cremated.

That is just the start of a process that raises thousands of pounds every year for charities that deal with some aspect of death and bereavement, as well as helping to improve recycling rates.