Sheer hard work and some inspiration have allowed Saeed Khan and Calvin Weaver to be in a position where they have set up their own firm of architects. Mr Kahn, from Oxford, and Mr Weaver, from Swindon, met at Oxford Brookes University but their story predates that encounter by several years.

In fact, being an architect probably seemed an impossible dream for Mr Khan after he left school with just one GCE O Level and a handful of CSEs.

He enrolled on a Youth Training Scheme apprenticeship with Oxford firm Bryan Gelder Joinery in Oxford's Marston Road, but it was then that the hard work really started.

Around 1989, he won the Apprentice of the Year title and had also started night classes, picking up some more O Levels and an A Level in art.

With his boss retiring, he applied successfully to Oxford Brookes to enrol on an architecture course.

Naturally, it was a complete change entering academic life after working as a joiner, not least because he was surrounded by 18-year-old school leavers.

But it was there he met Mr Weaver, who was the same age and had worked his way through a Higher National Certificate and a Higher National Diploma to finally be accepted on the degree course.

After four years on the course, and a further two studying for postgraduate diplomas, Mr Khan and Mr Weaver found themselves as qualified chartered architects.

Both went to work for established firms Mr Khan at Buerman Gueddes Stretton in Oxford, and Mr Weaver at WCW Architects in Swindon, but all the while they kept alive their ambition of working together, which they had first discussed at university.

Mr Khan said: "It came to the point where we were both 36 and it was a now or never' situation.

"We both had contacts we could rely on for work and we set up Weaver Khan Architects in Faringdon."

The location put them exactly halfway between Swindon and Oxford and they are also part of the Faringdon Enterprise Gateway, where business are encouraged to set up and are offered support, backed by the South East England Development Agency and the local Business Link.

Mr Khan added: "We both previously worked in large offices but although we have started on our own, the networking community is such that it is like working in a large office, although everyone is doing something different."

And, importantly, the contracts are coming in and are growing in size. For example, the firm is involved in an extension of Cafe Creme on Oxford's Broad Street.

Mr Weaver is also a church architect and that could also prove a lucrative avenue in the near future, with both having experience of working on listed buildings.

Mr Khan added: "The most important thing is that we are working well together."

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