I’m the UK’s last lighthouse keeper after building Grand Designs-style home from scratch… but it comes with a big catch
DEEP in the suburbs of Greater Manchester stands a 35ft tall lighthouse – and a very eccentric man who built it from scratch.
Phil “Barnacle” Austin, 83, worked for years as a management consultant before breaking ground on the nautical folly overlooking the Bridgewater Canal 20 years ago.
It’s since become a famous site in the village of Monton, in Salford, not least because of the big catch: that it’s 30 miles from the coast.
Unsurprisingly the lack of stormy seas means it’s never been used as a ‘working’ lighthouse, but it’s nonetheless been a “life changer” for owner Phil.
“It’s quite the local landmark, and if you tell a taxi to take me to Monton Lighthouse they all know where it is,” he says.
“Once I even went into a nearby bar and asked, as a joke, how long that lighthouse had been there – the barmaid said 200 years!”
The great-grandfather has given dozens of talks about his Grand Designs-style dream since bringing it to life in 2005, and the building regularly featured in books and TV shows over the years.
But it’s climbing to the top and watching the world go by that he enjoys most, even if it’s not the most luxurious night’s sleep.
“I’ve sat up there at the top and written a lot of poetry and things like that – I might get an old oak desk and put it at the top.
“I’ve even spent the odd night out of curiosity here, in a sleeping bag. But it wasn’t that comfortable compared to a proper bed!”
Phil originally lived in a houseboat on the canal before buying the triangular patch of land next door, intending to build himself a house.
But because of its position next to a conservation area, the planners said no – but that if he built something old-looking out of stone, they’d let him get away with it.
Lightbulb moment
He said: “After a few weeks thinking, the idea of a lighthouse came into my head.
“I looked under L for lighthouse builders in the Yellow Pages. There weren’t any, but one chap said he’d do it.”
On the first set of plans, they drew nothing more than an X pinpointing where it would go and labelled it a ‘four-storey storage facility’.
“The architect said, ‘If you put the word lighthouse on it, you won’t make it past the planning department’s reception. They’ll think you’re nuts – someone will ring you in a couple of months, and whatever you do, don’t mention the word lighthouse’,” Phil recounted.
“So the planner rang, asking for some more details about the warehouse, and for a quarter of an hour I answered like a politician – not giving a straight answer.
“He was getting a bit miffed, and said ‘I’m very confused Mr Austin – how are your trucks going to get in? How are you going to load and unload?’ He was still thinking it would be a storage facility.
“I said, ‘Well, to be honest, I’d like to build a lighthouse please.’
“There was a long silence, and he said, ‘I think you must have lost your signal, because I could’ve sworn I heard you say the word lighthouse.’
“I had had to come clean, and said ‘Yeah, you heard me correctly.’
Only ten minutes after putting down the phone, the planners came round to look at the site in person.
They were sold on the idea – but Phil didn’t even have a drawing of the lighthouse he wanted to build.
Instead, it took a quick trip to a jumble sale to get it over the line with the council.
They stamped my plans, which didn’t even have a lighthouse on it, and I got permission to build
Phil Austin
“The first thing they did was shake my hand and say to me, ‘It’s a brilliant idea – such a super spot for a lighthouse’.
“I asked if I could make a start – but he said no, there’s still twelve other members on the committee you’ve got to get it past.
“They asked if I had a model, and I said yeah. I didn’t even have a drawing of it, never mind a model,” added Phil.
“The next Sunday morning, there was a car boot sale and I bought a table lamp in the shape of a lighthouse. I took it to the meeting, put it in the middle of the table, and everyone was taking photographs of it.
“They stamped my plans, which didn’t even have a lighthouse on it, and I got permission to build.”
Funky furniture
Phil wasted no time in finding a builder who laid out the concrete blocks before rendering each section in red and white like a lighthouse, and adding its interior fittings himself.
Inside there’s even a curved sofa that came second hand from an old BBC studio – once sat on by ex-Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – and the wrought iron spiral staircase came from a scrapheap.
But no lighthouse would be complete without a light.
Originally, Phil installed four car spotlights set to a timer to give the illusion of a spinning light.
He then found an even better replacement, which, while in need of a bulb change at the moment, normally sits pride of place at the top.
“The light itself is a genuine part, off an old light ship.
“I was in this little museum in Cornwall, and after I’d told them about my famous lighthouse they took me down to the cellar where this piece was lying on the floor covered in dust, and I bought it.”
It’s so unusual – not something you find around here very often
Jo Morgan
The rest of the inside still needs a few more touches, with Phil planning to put in mosaics with a different theme on every floor.
The lighthouse is just over four metres wide at its base but tapers to only just over two metres wide at the top floor.
Phil ended up getting to know the planner who first approved of his creation well – and was eventually able to persuade him for permission to build the house he wanted all along.
“We were having tea at the top of the lighthouse when I cheekily suggested I build a little bungalow next door,”.
“He said ‘Yeah – call it Keeper’s Cottage’.
“If you’ve already built a lighthouse, it needs a cottage next to it doesn’t it?” he added.
Even the local bar and restaurant, The Waterhouse, has gotten in on the action, renaming their front room the ‘Lighthouse Lounge’.
And the design of a medical centre next door that was being built at the same time was tweaked to give it more of a nautical theme.
Jo Morgan, who owns the Waterside, said her staff get asked about the lighthouse so much they’re thinking of putting up an information sign next to the bar.
“We constantly get asked questions about it by customers, every single day,” she said.
Jo added: “I don’t think there’s anybody that lives within three or four miles of here that wouldn’t know of the lighthouse.
“It’s so unusual – not something you find around here very often.”