A man has spent £30,000 building his own CANAL in his garden - complete with a functioning lock system and a narrowboat converted into a swimming pool.
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, Warks.
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.
