'Saddest Ever' Grand Designs House Goes On Sale

A Devonshire mansion, which featured in the ‘saddest ever’ episode of Grand Designs, has gone on sale for £10 million.

Set on the cliffs of Croyde, Chesil Cliff House featured in an episode of the Channel 4 show back in 2019, where viewers were introduced to Edward Short, 52.

However, his dream project turned into a bit of a nightmare after he was hit with numerous setbacks due to the contractor, financial stresses and covid.

Frank Knight

Short, who has separated from his wife since the show aired, was initially told the property would be put on the market - with a £10m price tag - by the end of 2021, but the whole thing was hit with a slew of snags.

Earlier this year, he revealed he was still waiting to get the last bits finished, including the tiling for the swimming pool and re-do of the driveway.

Speaking to the Daily Star at the time, he said: "It is not finished yet but it is due to go on the market in May or June so hopefully we are near the finish line."

He added: "I've been doing this build for more than 10 years - so have gone past headaches now and built a lot of resilience."

Frank Knight

Now, the place is finally on the market - albeit in need of flooring in a few rooms.

He told The Times: "I could put £300,000 worth of flooring in but it would just end up in a skip because it is my taste.

"Whoever buys it will want to do their own thing. I spent all my money trying to make the pool as big as I can, and the spaces as interesting, and the engineering as solid as it can be.

"If you had limitless money there is still a lot of fun to be had here - I should have had more money personally before starting it. It was all borrow, borrow."

SWNS

As for his future plans now the gaff is finally on the market, speaking back in April, he said: "I can not make any plans of what I do next until it is sold - but I would be very surprised if they involved any more big build projects. I think I need a physiatrist and help with PTSD.

"I’ll always be proud to have finished this. I owe it to my family to have a real end result, but the time has come to move on.

"I will have achieved what I set out to do, never deviating from the plans, and for that I’ll always be proud.

"These past ten years have been a marathon slog - and I have got used to being a millionaire in debt."