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.<br /><br />Nick Lupton, 60, and his wife Anne, 50, live in a converted 17th century house on the banks of the River Severn.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />The couple became so fed up with the costly clear-ups, they decided to surround the entire property with a 7ft-high flood defence.<br /><br />They spent four months constructing the brick barrier before finally finishing it last October – just weeks before Storm Henk swept Britain.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Nick said: "We bought the house with our eyes wide open.<br /><br />“We’ve been flooded 11 times since 2016. <br /><br />“We live in a beautiful part of the world, right next to the River Severn, with one drawback – we get flooded.<br /><br />“We finally decided to build ourselves a wall around the house. <br /><br />“We built it last summer and it took about four months to complete. <br /><br />“We finished it in the middle of September and we tested it the middle of October.<br /><br />“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.”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />The couple remortgaged to pay for the flood wall and said they hoped it would add value to their home as a result.<br /><br />Residents living nearby have congratulated the couple for taking action to protect their home.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />“Flooding is such a problem around here. It’s not just the fields that flood, it’s roads and homes. <br /><br />"The powers that be must act soon to stop this misery happening again and again or people will simply move away.”