Couple build amazing new Tudor home from scratch – learning Elizabethan carpentry, roofing and plumbing

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It may look 450 years old, but this Tudor house is the result of one 21st century couple's hard work and dedication.

Ray and Michele Blundell spent two and a half years building their Elizabethan style home from scratch - complete with 16th century timber work, low ceilings and tiled roof.

The couple bought the house in 1998 and set about teaching themselves plumbing, electrical wiring and medieval carpentry in order to create their dream home.

As a result, the value of the property has spiked to more than 600,000, the Blundells having spent 110,000 after buying it for just 90,000.

Ray said the couple had both come out of divorces and had no money when they decided to take on the project while living in a static caravan on site near Lichfield in Staffordshire.

Wed never done anything like this before. We wanted to do as much of the work ourselves as we could. We ordered the timber frame from a company in Hereford and three builders helped to put up the twenty-ton oak skeletal frame. They also helped us with a few other jobs including the insulation.

But we did everything else; put the roof on, made and laid the floorboards, made the doors, did all the electrics and installed the under-floor heating. We did everything really added the 69 year-old retired Sales Director.

Initially the bank had refused to give them any money, seeing the oak in the yard and not believing a house would come of it, said Ray.

But when someone from the bank returned three weeks later, he was "gobsmacked" to see the frame had been assembled.

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Couple build amazing new Tudor home from scratch - learning Elizabethan carpentry, roofing and plumbing