For some reason I don't seem to be able to reply to the original Post, so I have started again. (Can someone tell me why this is?)
Thanks Guys there's a lot of great feed back and ideas here. Michael your comments about the traditional way of using a stump is along the lines of what I was thinking. Working on the fact that it would have been hard to fabricate a stand & a stump would be quicker & simpler. Thanks for the links Marc, this is a site I hadn't seen before, certainly a lot of good ideas here.
Happy hammering Steve