In pictures: Fixing the FA Cup

Every year the FA Cup comes to Thomas Lyte Silver, in London, to be repaired before it is handed over to the latest winning team. Photography by Amit Lennon.

Kevin Williams and Tony Cimmering have been restoring the cup for the past 12 years. Here it arrives for repairs in its own case.

Kevin Williams looks at the lid of the FA Cup, which has been damaged. Quite unusually the small sculpture on the top of the FA Cup, instead of having a football-related theme, is in fact a miniature version of the cup itself.

The current cup is the fourth example of the trophy - this example dates from 1992, replacing a 1910 cup which had become too fragile.

The FA Cup is heated so it can be remoulded. In the hands of these skilled craftsmen the trophy can be reshaped and then silver plated once more so that any damage is undetectable.

Kevin said: "Each dent in a cup is unique, you might be lucky to find a tool that fits it, or you might have to make a tool to fit that specific job."

Tony Cimmering and Kevin Williams inspect the damage

While it was at Portsmouth, the current holders, the cup fell from a plinth and the year before at Chelsea it fell from a bus. Tony said: "This is the worst it's been."

Kevin said he still uses the tools he used when he was learning his apprenticeship and hopes one day he has to repair damage from West Ham winning the trophy.

"It's been repaired God knows how many times over the years," said Tony. "But you'd never know, because each time it's repaired it's camouflaged, going through the processes of the silver plating."

Tony says the job is often dirty - silversmiths making jewellery might need to wash their hands only at the end of a day's work, but working on such large pieces can be filthy work.

According to Kevin, Thomas Lyte Silver is unusual as most of the silversmithing trade has become a "cottage industry".

The company also built the Coca Cola Cup and golf's Ryder Cup. Many of Britain's craftsmen are in their 50s and 60s and there is a real need for apprentices to learn the skills and keep the industry alive.