By 2025, Blue John Cavern had inspired decades of digging by Francis Proctor; his maze sits 20 feet below his garden, with a waterfall and a tribute to his wife

Francis Proctor spent 30 years constructing an underground labyrinth by hand-digging beneath his garden in Ainsdale, Southport. Proctor, a retired photographer, carved out a network of caves that house a bridge, a waterfall and a collection of unusual objects from around the world. The couple had underpinned the side of their house when they built an extension, and the digging itself was Francis’s project. According to LadBible, Barbara Proctor, a mathematician and statistician, examined the plans and worked out how the excavation could proceed. Under her direction, Francis gradually dug deeper using spades and shovels, eventually reaching around 20 feet below the garden. What started as an idea for a private underground room burgeoned into a site for visitors, and eventually the garden became a memorial dedicated to his wife after she passed away.A garden project grew into an underground attractionAfter being inspired by Blue John Cavern in Derbyshire, Proctor wanted to build an underground room accessible from the garden. The property being located on sand dunes near Ainsdale Beach made the project dicey since it posed a challenge of risking ground collapse near Ainsdale Beach made the project dicey since it posed a challenge of risking ground collapse.Until his wife, Barbara, stepped in and crunched the right calculations, which allowed him to dig deeper and reinforce the structure with concrete walls that were approximately 1.5 metres thick, Onedio reported. The result was a labyrinth of underground caves, consisting of rooms, passages, and details reminiscent of small stage sets, including a skeleton prop salvaged from a Hollywood film set in the United States.From above ground, the garden looks like an ordinary residential property, but the caves have become a major attraction for visitors. The project received wider attention after it appeared on Channel 4’s George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces, which came as a surprise to Proctor, who insisted that he had only worked on the excavation during his spare time.The garden is listed with the National Garden Scheme and has drawn people from across Britain. Proctor said visitors often struggled to comprehend what they were seeing and that the garden's popularity grew despite public attention never having been the original purpose of the project.Barbara's Garden preserves a personal tributeWhen Barbara passed away, Proctor dedicated the garden to her and placed a plaque at its entrance bearing the words 'Barbara's Garden'. According to a Metro report in 2025, the memorial also includes a historic foundation stone that Proctor tracked down himself. The stone once stood at Southport Hospital, where the Earl of Derby originally laid it in 1922.In 2022, centuries of history came full circle when Francis unveiled that very stone in his garden to honour Barbara’s memory 100 years after it had originally been laid. By incorporating this piece of Southport's heritage, he permanently tied the sanctuary he built for his wife to the history of the town itself.According to Metro, the plaque was made by the same craftsmen who made Barbara’s gravestone, giving the entrance another link to her memorial. The foundation stone took on a new purpose in the garden but retained its original association with Southport Hospital. The plaque and the stone together, marked the garden as a tribute to Barbara and the role she played in making the excavation possible.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.