A hotelier has spent £30,000 on a canal in his garden – complete with a functioning lock and a narrowboat-turn swimming pool.
Stephen Cuddy, 59, first bought a 10-metre vintage barge off eBay for £5,000 before sinking £25,000 into producing a replica Victorian canal lock to house it.
The self-taught architect started by digging out 30-40 tonnes of soil on a small plot of land in the grounds of a hotel he owns in Coleshill, Warwickshire.
Over the next six months he built the fully functioning canal lock, complete with a gate and water pumping system to fill and empty it.
He also constructed a redbrick lockkeeper’s cottage and an outdoor patio within a decorative tunnel alcove.
The eccentric hotel owner now reckons he has the world’s shortest canal – with his boat able to travel a mere 24 inches.
Mr Cuddy revealed the whole creation of the canal was only because his ex-partner objected to the narrowboat being in full view.
He said: ‘It started when I told my ex-partner, who I am also in business with, I’m thinking of buying a narrowboat.
‘She said that would never happen so I got one.
‘But then I needed somewhere to put it as I knew she wouldn’t be too happy when it turned up.
‘The idea was to have it as a bit of an escape pod for myself but I wanted to do it up so everyone could use it – from hotel staff to my friends.
‘I had to sort of hide it away from guests and I then I thought why not build a whole canal lock to disguise it.
‘I thought it could actually work. I asked my friends if it they agreed and they just said “You’re weird anyway”.’
His stunning creation recently featured on Channel 4’s George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces with the host describing it as ‘awe-inspiring’ and ‘off the scale brilliant’.
‘Even George Clarke had that look on his face that he didn’t think it was possible and I just thought I’m going to do this anyway and prove people wrong,’ Mr Cuddy added.
He admitted he had committed to a ‘ridiculous project’ but set to work building the incredible canal lock system out of 7,500 bricks and railway sleepers.
Mr Cuddy had no professional construction equipment like laser levels and instead planned most of the three-year project in his head with the help of a bit of string and a spirit level.
The irony of filling a five tonne boat entirely with water is not lost on the wacky entrepreneur who runs three-star Grimscote Manor Hotel.
He continued: ‘The thinking was also that I didn’t want people turning up at the hotel to find a canal stuck in the garden.
‘I thought I needed a way to make it look more presentable.
‘The boat cost me £5,000, it was an empty shell. I wanted to put the swimming pool in it.
‘When you buy a boat, you think to yourself, what’s the last thing you need in a boat. The last thing you need is water.
‘I thought if I fill a boat with water, it’s effectively sinking constantly, I needed something with a bit of a twist to it. I wanted something different, and it looks really good.’
He revealed that, compared to other parts of the project, the eight-metre pool ‘wasn’t that expensive’, coming to roughly £1,500 in total.
Mr Cuddy grew up in Birmingham where he said he would walk the city’s 35 miles of canals – more than even Venice has to offer – to escape a troubled home life.
‘I was born in Small Heath, in Birmingham, so obviously renowned for lots of canals. I spent a lot of times walking up canals and quite a few times falling in,’ he recalled.
‘So I’ve essentially built a therapy room to get over my phobia of canals.
‘Canal’s are quite intimidating places, they were built for a purpose. They’re quite ugly at times, but what I’ve built is quite beautiful.
‘And it was all done using quite primitive methods. Very much like an Egyptian would have built it.
‘The compliments from guests and people have been nonstop. All that doubt and worry has lifted off me. I’m very proud.
‘I did all the work myself, the lock works and mechanically lifts the boat. I only travel 24 inches.
‘I’m going for the worlds shortest lock. I think it must qualify. I can’t see why it wouldn’t.’