Ex-Wigan RAF engineer has Boeing 737 in garden

Steve Jones, who rose to fame on the TV show George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces by converting a plane engine into a caravan, has kept himself busy since by refurbishing the front section of a Boeing 737.

The plan had been to turn the former BMI Baby craft into a glamping pod (albeit with a fully-equipped cockpit) for a new aviation-themed holiday project that the 49-year-old from Dalton near Parbold had.

But a change in circumstances – not least becoming a dad for the third time – has knocked that idea on the head and so he has put it on the market instead.

And there has been no shortage of offers, not just from campsites looking for a distinctive pod, but also schools, libraries and restaurants interested in an unusual annexe.

That doesn’t mean dad of three Steve’s interest in aircraft will be over though, as he has two other planes in his Dutch barn plus a cockpit on a trailer in the stables.

The Boeing dream began four years ago when Steve was looking after historic jets at RAF Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire. The craft, which had been in service from 1994 until 2013, had been sitting at the end of a runway ever since and was about to be scrapped.

He said: “I thought ‘I could do something with this and asked the owner if I could buy it. They accepted my second offer and I took an angle grinder to it because I thought I would be pushing with my wife Charlotte it if I took the whole aircraft home with me.

"Most of the time I have spent on it since has been finding components to refit the cockpit. But the plan was to have it as a glamping pod at an aviation-themed site. But then the pandemic came and I became a dad for the third time and I realised I wouldn’t be able to dedicate myself 100 per cent to running the site, and so I put it up for sale.

"It’s been seen 500,000 times on Market Place alone and there has been a lot of interest, particularly from Indian restaurants. It has novelty value and could be put to all kinds of different purposes.

"It has been in the garden for four years and it will be sad to see it go. The kids like playing in it. But it’s a big old structure and when it goes I can concentrate on the other aeroplanes.

"These restorations started as a hobby, then it became more of a business venture, but now I can step back and enjoy it as a hobby again.”

Steve says that next on the agenda is turning one of the other planes into a touring caravan and another appearance on George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces might be in the offing next year.