Retired engineer dubbed ‘Worcester’s King Canute’ after building flood wall around £600k home

A retired engineer has been dubbed ‘Worcester’s King Canute’ after he built a wall to protect his £600,000 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.

Since they moved into the four-bedroom detached property in Pixham, Worcs., in 2016 the house and one-acre of land has flooded 11 times.

The couple became so fed up with the costly clear-ups, they decided to surround the entire property with a 7ft-high flood defence.

They spent four months constructing the brick barrier before finally finishing it last October – just weeks before Storm Henk swept Britain.

Stunning drone images show the black-and-white house and courtyard surrounded by flood waters after the River Severn burst its banks earlier this week.

Nick said: “We bought the house with our eyes wide open.

“We’ve been flooded 11 times since 2016.

“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 built it last summer and it took about four months to complete.

“We finished it in the middle of September 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 sign of the rising water.

Before building the flood wall, Nick and Anne added a 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.

One said: “Nick’s a fabulous fella and we all applaud him for what he’s done – we call him Worcester’s answer to King Canute.

“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.”