At school, Kevin Butler hated woodwork so much his teacher would throw lumps of wood at him in frustration.

However, he discovered a hidden talent when his wife Amanda nagged him into building a tree house for their children.

He came to love his new hobby so much he has now made nine windmills, which take pride of his place in his garden.

Kevin, 46, of Old Road, Herstmonceux, spent four years making the largest windmill, which is 18ft.

He only finished it this spring but is already planning his tenth mill.

During the summer he gets up at 4.30am to work on the windmills before leaving for work as a motorbike mechanic at 7.30am. Then, after work, he continues on the windmills from 6pm until nightfall.

Kevin said: "It's become a real labour of love for me but I used to hate woodwork at school.

"My teacher threw blocks of wood at me - it was back in the Sixties when you could get away with things like that.

"It meant I never wanted to do anything like this after I left school. I only got forced into it because my wife told me to build a tree house."

He followed that with an 18in windmill, then one measuring 3ft and another at 7ft.

He said: "I'm not quite sure why I like windmills so much. Maybe it's because I have always been interested in mechanical things."

The biggest windmill has electrical fittings inside so his sons Kevin, nine, Timothy, four, and Ashley, one, can watch television and play games.

It also has a rear axle from a Suzuki jeep holding the sails.

He bases most of the designs on windmills in Sussex and Kent, though he travelled to France to study one impressive type near Calais.

The windmills are all visible from the road and attract plenty of admiring comments.

Kevin said: "I hadn't really thought of them as achievements until people started saying how good they looked."