I spent £30k building the ‘world's shortest canal’ in my garden - with 8m long swimming pool inside my barge

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.

Stephen 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. He then spent another £25,000 constructing a fully-functioning canal lock complete with a lock gate and water pumping system to fill and empty it.

Stephen 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. He now reckons he has the world's shortest canal  - with his boat able to travel a mere 24 inches.

Stephen’s creation featured on Channel 4's 'George Clarke's Amazing Spaces' with the host describing it as "off the scale brilliant”.

Stephen, of Coleshill, said: "The boat cost me £5,000, it was an empty shell. It works really well as a pool and it wasn’t that expensive. The lining cost £1,000 and some other bits, it was probably about £1,500 all in. It’s 4ft deep and 6ft wide and 29ft long. It’s a good size, I've swam in it and it’s beautiful. 

"I was born in Small Heath, in Birmingham, so obviously renowned for lots of canals. I spent a lot of time walking up canals and quite a few times falling in. So I’ve essentially built a therapy room to get over my phobia of canals."