A man has spent £30,000 building a canal in his garden so he can store his barge. Stephen Cuddy, 59, purchased a 35ft (10m) long vintage barge off eBay for £5,000 and constructed an accurate reproduction of a 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 spent another £25,000 constructing a full-functioning canal lock complete with lock gate and water pumping system to fill and empty it. He also built a redbrick lockkeeper’s cottage, an outdoor patio within a decorative tunnel alcove and installed a 29ft (8m) long swimming pool inside the barge. The eccentric hotel owner now reckons he has the world’s shortest canal with his boat able to travel a mere 24 inches.
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’. George added: ‘Stephen has delivered one of the most unbelievable Amazing Spaces builds ever.’ Stephen, of Coleshill, said: ‘It started when I told my ex-partner, who I am also in business with, I’m thinking of buying a narrowboat.
‘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 .