IT began as a boyhood dream and ended in a painful 15-year saga featured in “the saddest Grand Designs episode ever”.
Now Edward Short, 57, has finally sold Chesil Cliff House – the lighthouse-inspired mansion which left him over £10million in debt – but not without a final twist in his rollercoaster life that has seen history cruelly repeat itself.
Edward Short spent 15 years building Chesil Cliff House[/caption]
Edward and ex-wife Hazel mapped out their plans on Grand Designs[/caption]
Building work stalled amid spiralling costs[/caption]
The six-bedroom mansion, which sits majestically on a clifftop between Saunton Sands and Croyde Beach in North Devon and comes with its own private cove, has been sold for the knockdown price of £4.35million, after two years on the market.
But the former music mogul won’t see a penny – as the mansion and its smaller sister property, The Eye, were already in the hands of receivers.
And while the sale price doesn’t touch the sides of the huge debt Edward wracked up, as costs spiralled out of control, he tells The Sun he is relieved the ordeal is finally over.
“I’ve had time to get used to it and I’ve moved on,” he says. “I’m relieved it’s all over without a doubt. But there were lots of highs and lows in there, there were some amazing moments.
“It’s obviously finished way off where I would have hoped but I’ve known for a long time I would never live in my dream house so I have mentally moved on.”
Edward, who grew up in Plymouth, moved from London to Devon in 2004 with his family – wife Hazel, 60, and daughters Nicole, 24 and Lauren, 25 – after missing the crashing waves of his childhood.
Having paid £1.4million for an “ugly” seven-bed clifftop home in 2008, he decided to knock it down to build his Ibiza-inspired lighthouse vision, borrowing £1.8million for the build.
When Grand Designs first featured the build in 2016, presenter Kevin McCloud was blindsided by Edward’s refusal to compromise on design – as a litany of setbacks saw the couple’s original loan spiral to £4million.
And by the time the cameras returned to the property in 2018 building work had stalled, leaving a grey shell which neighbours branded an “eyesore” – and Edward’s 20-year marriage to Hazel on the rocks.
When I first met Edward at the stunning property in 2022, he admitted his “messed-up dreams” put huge pressure on Hazel and the girls, and ultimately led to the split.
“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,” he said.
“There’s no doubt what I put Hazel through was horrendous,
“There’s a lot of guilt about that. But there was no way out, once we started. If we didn’t finish we’d have been in big trouble.”
Eye of the storm
At that point, the house had been put on the market for £10million and Edward’s debts were in excess of £7million, with eye-watering amounts of interest piling on every day.
He was later forced to borrow another £2million to repair an original drive on the property which had begun to crumble.
Yet, when he led me on a tour of the property, on a blazing hot July day, the pride in his project was palpable – despite the crippling costs and devastating effect on his life.
The vast ground floor, which includes a spa, steam room and cinema room, opens into a huge kitchen diner, with a glass wall running down one side, overlooking an infinity pool that melds seamlessly with the expansive sea view.
Edward showed us round his stunning home in 2022[/caption]
The house boasts incredible sea views[/caption]
On the first floor, a huge master bedroom opens out on to a balcony and even the bathrooms look out over the cove below, where Edward and his daughters enjoyed many a happy time jumping off the rocks into the waves.
But the main feature is the signature four-storey rotunda, which houses a ground-floor living room, bedrooms and the storm room, with its 270-degree view, where Edward delighted in watching the raging seas as winds battered the coast.
And while the property is no longer his, he has fond memories of the time he spent there, living in the smaller three-bed house, The Eye, which was initially built as a separate property in a bid to claw back some cash.
“Although we never got to live in the main house, we were in the Eye a lot when it was done,” he says.
“We got to enjoy the swimming pool, although it was never heated, and I will cherish some amazing memories there. I remember swimming in it one summer when the temperature hit 40 degrees and that was amazing.
“And I got to spend time in the storm room, during a storm, which was spectacular. It’s an epic location for watching the elements and I saw what it will deliver for whoever is lucky enough to live in it.”
By last January the price had almost halved to £5.25million, and both properties finally sold for the lower price at the end of 2024.
Edward, who narrowly avoided bankruptcy even as the receivers took over his debts from the lending banks, admits that he’s been kept in the dark about the new buyers.
“I only get limited information and don’t get a say in anything. They’re just trying to get as much as they can from the house and then they’ve just left me alone.
“The sale didn’t cover the debt but the two houses were the security for the debt. So that’s the end of that.”
Fresh heartbreak
After their split, Edward remained close to ex Hazel and found love again with nurse Jalia Nambasa, and the pair were planning to tie the knot.
But in a heartbreaking twist, the music mogul reveals the couple split in June – another casualty of the ongoing drama of his rollercoaster life.
“I was very sad about that, although we are still friends,” he says. “It was a difficult period because she was with me when the house went from not selling to bringing me to the verge of bankruptcy and I was also going through a career change. It wasn’t easy for her to live through that.”
Edward’s romance with Jalia Nambasa has also sadly ended[/caption]
The original house was knocked down[/caption]
Neighbours got impatient as building work stalled[/caption]
The surprising career change for the music producer – who made his millions from the Euphoria compilation CD brand he started in 2000 – has seen him working as a prison officer for over two years.
His reason for retraining harks back to a traumatic time in his teens when he ended up in a youth detention centre after bunking off from Dr Challoner’s Grammar School in Amersham, Bucks, where he suffered persistent sexual abuse.
Childhood trauma
After first being inappropriately touched on his first day, at 12, the abuse escalated and at 14, he was groomed by history teacher Richard Small, who invited him to the pub and molested him in the car afterwards.
Small, who was jailed in 2005 after Edward found the courage to go to the police, would go on to assault him over 20 times.
He was eventually awarded £75,000 from Buckinghamshire County Council – which paid the architect bill on the Devon build – but he says the school experience saw him go off the rails.
“I got off to an unlucky start between 12 and 16, and stopped going to school because I was getting sexually abused by four teachers,” he says.
“I was confused and angry so I was skipping school and getting in trouble with the police.
“I ended that in one of those, ‘short, sharp shock’ detention centres and I remember being locked behind the door, feeling suicidal and thinking my whole life was finished.
“That stuff sticks with you. But having come out of that and gone on to become a millionaire – from rock bottom – I thought my life experience could be used if I went to work in a prison.”
Rollercoaster career
Now living in Bath and working in a category B jail, Edward finds his new role rewarding and says it also puts his own problems into perspective.
“You’re dealing with people who are sometimes suicidal and self-harm is quite common so a lot of my time is trying to talk them out of it, deescalating situations.
“You’re a mixture of father figure, mentor and pathway guide, trying to help them to believe in themselves and find a way not to come back inside.
“When you work there you see how these guys get caught up in the system and we have our regular faces coming back in so it’s a huge priority to give them pathways to earning money legally – and believing they can do it.
“But being in that environment completely takes me away from what’s gone on in my world. When you hear about some of their lives, you think, ‘you need to stop indulging in your own stuff. You’ve still got it pretty easy.”
Daughters Lauren and Nicole appeared with the couple in the C4 show[/caption]
His own rollercoaster ride with the Grand Designs build hasn’t gone unnoticed among the lags either.
“They all chat away in there and my notoriety has been quite helpful,” he laughs. “They’re quite amused I’ve managed to lose so much money and ended up working there.”
Edward still keeps his hand in with music – and is currently organising two gigs to celebrate 25 years of Euphoria, on November 29 at the Bournemouth 02, and at London’s Steel Yard on New Years Day.
‘Everything I had, I’ve lost’
Now free of the millstone that Chesil Cliff House became, Edward says his biggest regret is still the effect, financially and mentally, the saga had on ex-wife Hazel.
“There’s nothing to pay out so it has left Hazel without any security, which is the awful part and I feel bad about that,” he says.
“Normally in a divorce, you would split the sale of a property and both of you have something so you can buy a flat or house but she got nothing.
“She’s never said that I’ve let her down – she doesn’t have to – but if I could put that bit right and give her that security back, I would sleep a lot better at night.
“But everything I had, I’ve lost.”
Having finally let go, Edward is still keen to keep an eye on the house, and says he’d love to be invited back once the finishing touches – including the bathrooms and kitchen which were never fitted – are added.
“It would be exciting to see it polished up and I would derive pleasure from seeing it at its very best,” he says, adding he hasn’t ruled out a return to the cliffside property.
“I know my ‘grand design’ is now gone. But I can still buy a lottery ticket and dream.”