Pub’s locals help with regal transformation

Andrew Southerden has renamed his pub HMS Coach & Horses after transforming the building, complete with funnels, life rafts, illuminated portholes and a bow added to the side.

Work began last October and involved hundreds of hours of graft by his locals and other friends from the village of Kibworth in Leicestershire.

Completed yesterday, it was “launched” by broadcaster and historian Michael Wood.

Mr Southerden officially kicked off the massive Kibworth Regatta street party outside the ship, with locals in high spirits not dampened by the steady rain.

He said the idea which may be the biggest inland boat on a dry dock in England, was inspired by the Thames pageant.