By Vivek Chaudhary For Mailonline
Published: 08:48 EDT, 2 September 2022 | Updated: 08:51 EDT, 2 September 2022
Martial Arts multi-millionaire Matt Fiddes has put in a £7.5 million bid to buy an art-deco lighthouse featured on Grand Designs that cost the owner his marriage and was dubbed the Channel 4 show's ‘saddest ever’ project.
Edward Short, 50, and his wife Hazel, from Devon, first appeared on Grand Designs in 2009 to reveal their ambitious plans to transform their 1950s home, Chesil Cliff House, in Croyde, Devon, into a stunning art-deco white lighthouse.
A decade later, the music industry executive featured on the programme again to reveal that the arrival of the recession, building issues and the breakdown of their marriage had left their dream in tatters.
The stunning art-deco home situated in Devon was put on the market earlier this year for £10 million
It comprises of five bedrooms and bathrooms, four reception rooms, a sauna and a cellar. The property also includes the three-bedroom studio annex known as The Eye and a double garage.
The beautiful property features high ceilings and large, open windows to give the new owners stunning views of the coastline in
Martial Arts multi-millionaire Matt Fiddes (pictured) has put in a £7.5 million bid to buy the art-deco lighthouse featured on Grand Designs
The house was eventually put on the market earlier this year for £10 million with Mr Short admitting that he was a ‘millionaire in debt’ as around £7 million for the building was borrowed.
He reluctantly decided to sell the house as a way of recovering the large loans he took to fund his ‘dream’ project.
Mr Fiddes, who has built a global fitness empire with over 700 Martial Arts and fitness schools worldwide and is worth an estimated £30 million put in his offer below the asking price to estate agents Knight Frank this week.
He plans to convert Chesil Cliff House into 12 luxury flats. He and his wife Monique recently had a full tour of the property.
In 2017, the couple and their five children featured in an episode of Channel 5’s Rich House Poor House where they swapped lives with a family from a council estate in Southampton.
Mr Fiddes, 45, who was formerly Michael Jackson’s bodyguard and grew up in Devon admitted: ‘Edward won’t like my idea of turning his life’s work into flats but if he hangs onto the property any longer finding a buyer who will meet his asking price will be almost impossible.’
The unique location of the house at Down End Point, Devon boasts panoramic views across Croyde Bay to the north as well as to Saunton beach and Braunton Burrows to the south.
The property has several reception rooms and its own pool which overlooks the coastline in Devon and boasts amazing panoramic views
It also comes complete with a beautifully fitted kitchen with stunning wooden flooring and all the amenities a home owner would need
The study is kept light and open with large windows showcasing the fantastic views around the property, which is now set to be converted into luxury flats
The property was initially listed for £10 million and was rumoured to have been purchased by star Harry Styles before the confirmed bid by multi-millionaire Matt Fiddes
The art-deco lighthouse was converted into a stunning six-bedroom home on a 2009 episode of the Channel 4 hit show Grand Designs
Edward Short and his ex-wife Hazel (pictured together at the home in Devon) have split since they decided to undertake the mammoth project
Mr Short (pictured) has been trying to sell the property after he finally completed work on the property after it appeared on a second episode of Grand Designs in 2019
2010: Edward and his wife Hazel appear on Grand Designs to reveal their plan to turn their 1950s home into an art-deco white lighthouse in 18 months. Plans for the development were submitted and approved but several delays ensued.
2012: Spiralling costs and the financial crisis puts the project on hold.
2014: Building work finally gets underway, but is hit by delays due to the weather and financial woes.
2016: Edward secures a loan for more than £2million from private investors
2017: Project is halted again after the pair run out of money.
2018: Couple apologise to local residends who complain the unfinished building is an eyesore
2019: Edward appears on Grand Designs again, admitting that only a few rooms have been finished and that his marriage to Hazel has collapsed under the strain
2021: Building work started again at the property and Edward said he hopes it will be finished by the end of the year
2022: Property is listed for sale for £10 million. Edward said his family are 'proud' of what he has achieved
When he started his project, Mr Short hoped that it would be completed within 18 months at a cost of £2.5 million.
In a 2019 episode of Grand Designs Mr Short explained that he had long dreamed of building a lighthouse on the cliff as a home for his family - but said several factors got in the way.
Setbacks included the 2011 financial crisis which prompted funds to be withdrawn, granite bedrock that took 18 months to drill into, not the expected six, and then Covid halting progress.
When one lender pulled out in 2018, the house was left derelict, looking more abandoned multi-storey car park than millionaire’s paradise. Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud, visiting in 2019, described it as a ‘desolate carcass’ — on which one irritated local graffitied ‘please finish’.
In the 2019 episode, Mr Short admitted how his fashion buyer ex-wife worked as a cleaner in order to fund his £7 million build and that the financial strain had an impact on their marriage.
In a newspaper interview he revealed: 'Hazel supported me and did amazing things to try to keep things going here, learning accountancy and doing holiday-let cleaning...
'She was very successful, working as a fashion buyer for Harrods, Selfridges and Simpsons, so to get to this age and have nothing is hard.'
And while he said the breakdown of his 20-year marriage was not entirely due to the stress caused by the build, he explained he would 'always carry a sense of guilt' for what he 'put Hazel through.'
He added: 'It was awful for the family because I pulled the stability rug from under them, without being able to give answers of how we were going to get out of it, other than that I had to carry on.'
Elsewhere, he explained he plans to marry his fiancée Jalia Nambasa, whom he met through online dating, next summer.
The couple are currently living at her house in Bath but he hopes to buy another property near the Devon house for the family to enjoy.
Photographs revealing the finished property were unveiled earlier this year, showing the white art-deco lighthouse perched on the edge of a cliff with an infinity pool running along one edge - just as Mr Short had always dreamed of.
The house is positioned on a three-acre site between surfers' paradise Saunton Sands backed by the impressive UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Braunton Burrows, and the idyllic cove of Croyde.
It has been anchored into the bed rock of the cliff, painstakingly engineered to a level that leaves no possibility for erosion hazards.
The agents described the property as one of the most impressive waterfront homes around and said they expected 'global interest' in the sale.
It comprises of five bedrooms and bathrooms, four reception rooms, a sauna and a cellar. The property also includes the three-bedroom studio annex known as The Eye and a double garage.
It was previously rumoured that Harry Styles had purchased the home for £8 million, but estate agents Knight Frank shut down the reports.
Mr Short appeared at the stunning property on a 2019 episode of the Channel 4 show (pictured with show presenter Kevin McCloud at the property)
Mr Short previously apologised to locals for not being able to finish the work on time amid several set backs including the coronavirus and a recession
The six-bedroom house, which they hoped would also feature a home cinema, a sauna and steam room, would boast panoramic views across Croyde Bay to the north, as well as to Saunton beach and Braunton Burrows to the south
Mr Short and his ex-wife planned to build the luxury home, comprised of a huge circular tower and spectacular glass-edge infinity pool, in just 18 months.
The six-bedroom house, which they hoped would also feature a home cinema, a sauna and steam room, would boast panoramic views across Croyde Bay to the north, as well as to Saunton beach and Braunton Burrows to the south.
They hoped it would cost £2.2 million, but it quickly became apparent the build was near-impossible to complete. The house required complex engineering, with the couple sinking 25 'anchors' into the rock in order to support the home.
But by February 2012, the financial collapse meant they had to put plans on hold and they started to build a smaller building further along the coastline which they nicknamed the 'eye'.
In February 2016, Mr Short secured a loan of £2.5million from private investors, which he admitted he was depending on to finish the build.
He told Grand Designs' host Kevin the project had become a nightmare, saying: 'Terrifying is an adjective that doesn't really sum it up if I'm honest.'
With debts of over three million, the couple were trapped by the thought that if they were to finish the project, it could end up selling for £7million.
But when Kevin returned to the property in 2019, he found it was still unfinished. The presenter described it as 'the bare bones of a house and more like a desolate carcass'.
He went on to say: 'It's a little bit like finding the wreckage of a building on a seashore'.
You said Harry styles was buying it yesterday!
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