A retired engineer has been dubbed “Worcester’s King Canute” after he built a wall to protect his 600,000 pound ($760,000) property from flooding.
Nick Lupton, 60, and his wife Anne, 50, live in a converted 17th-century house on the banks of the River Severn.
Their house and 1-acre block of land have flooded 11 times since they moved into the four-bedroom detached property in Pixham, Worcestershire, in 2016. The couple said they were so fed up with the costly clear-ups, they decided to surround the entire property with a 7-foot-high flood defense.
Drone images show the house and courtyard surrounded by flood waters after the River Severn recently burst its banks.
They spent four months constructing the brick barrier before finally finishing it last October—just weeks before Storm Henk swept Britain.
“We bought the house with our eyes wide open. We’ve been flooded 11 times since 2016,” Mr. Lupton said. “We live in a beautiful part of the world, right next to the River Severn, with one drawback—we get flooded.
“We finally decided to build ourselves a wall around the house. ... We finished it in the middle of September [last year], and we tested it the middle of October. This flood is quite a high one, it’s close to the record in 2020, so it’s a really good test of it, and so far it’s stood up to that.”
Part of the property was once the river ferryboat’s inn. When it was a pub, the sound of floating beer barrels in the cellar was a warning sign of impending floodwaters.
Before building the flood wall, the couple added barriers in front of the doors and pumps under the floors to keep the flood water out. The couple remortgaged to pay for the flood wall and said they hoped it would add value to their home as a result.
Residents living nearby have congratulated the couple for taking action to protect their home.
“Nick’s a fabulous fellow, and we all applaud him for what he’s done—we call him Worcester’s answer to King Canute,” one local resident said. “Flooding is such a problem around here. It’s not just the fields that flood, it’s roads and homes.
“The powers that be must act soon to stop this misery happening again and again or people will simply move away.”
