A working water buffalo farm situated on the rolling chalk downs of Broughton has bolstered its already unique getaway offerings - with the addition of a 47ft boat. 

The aptly named Ark Buffalo now lives up to its title after completing a mega operation to move the 20-tonne vessel from a boatyard near Chichester. 

On Friday, November 18, the boat was loaded onto a specialist vehicle before being escorted to the farmyard, where two 50-tonne cranes were waiting to lift her onto a purpose-built stand. 

Dagan James, the owner of Manor Farm, where Ark Buffalo is based, said: "It couldn't have gone better. It all went like clockwork, to be honest, and now she's sat in the farmyard drying out in the sun."

Hampshire Chronicle: The Ark being craned into the farmyardThe Ark being craned into the farmyard (Image: Ark Buffalo)

For the last four years or so the boat has been left to rot by its previous owner. However, Mr James said he was surprised at how little needs to be done to transform it into a space for family or corporate breaks. 

"There's not a huge amount of work to do," he added. "If she was going back out to sea it would be about half a million quid, but hopefully, it won't cost that - although I've sunk my entire budget already!

"The first step is to get the roof on to allow her to dry out because she had a lot of water in her. She needs a bit of boarding up to make her watertight, but the cabin was actually in surprisingly good shape.

"We're not sure exactly what role she is going to have just yet. We've got a lot of tipis and we've built all these crazy salvage material trailers that people sit on. So, we've got quite a good array of infrastructure now and it's kind of a pirate meets Mad Max vibe. It's all very excentric so the boat will fit in very well."

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Built in King's Lynn in 1924, the boat is made almost entirely of timber and was originally used as a pilot cutter. Later in its life, it became a prawn fishing boat before being sailed to destinations around the globe for leisure.

Hampshire Chronicle: The ArkThe Ark (Image: Ark Buffalo)

After returning from the South of France and being almost completely forgotten its value plummeted from around £70,000 to £5,000 due to rot and damage.

Mr James said if he hadn't stepped in, it looked as if it was destined for the scrapyard.

"It's a really beautiful bit of engineering," he said. "We were all about boats in England and Britain in the old days, boats were what we did. Above all, it feels like a huge honour to have her here and have that responsibility to keep her alive if not as an ocean-going vessel, at least still pretty much intact. We've got the buffalo and now we've got the ark."

For more information, visit the Ark Buffalo website.