HE WAS the engineering genius who created a revolutionary new form of transport that is used across the globe.

Sir Christopher Cockerell, who earned a unique place in history after inventing the hovercraft in the 1950s, lived in a three-bedroom house overlooking Southampton Water.

Now the new owners of the dilapidated property at Prospect Place, Hythe, have vowed to restore it to its former glory.

The house had been unoccupied for more than 20 years when Philip Naylor and his wife Diane bought it from the Cockerell family in February last year. It was damp and in a poor state of repair.

Some of the rooms have now been demolished ahead of a major rebuilding project using the original bricks.

Mr and Mrs Naylor are planning to reverse some of the changes made over the years and recapture the property's previous character.

When work is complete the front of the house will look much as it did when it was built about 100 years ago.

Sir Christopher's old home will once again have a front door instead of a porch on the side. Mr and Mrs Naylor are also planning to install sash windows and reinstate the front gate, which they found buried in the garden.

The couple were living nearby when they decided to buy a place on the waterfront and discovered the landmark property was for sale.

Mr Naylor, 63, said: "The house had been unoccupied for 21 years.

"Sir Christopher's office was in a flat-roofed extension on the ground floor. The roof failed many years ago and rain had permeated the walls and wooden flooring. Most of the contents had suffered badly from damp."

The house and its outbuildings were full of possessions the celebrated inventor had acquired during his lifetime.

They included Sir Christopher's desk and an ancient Amstrad computer. The Naylors also discovered engineering drawings, a box of fishing tackle and a trunk covered in P&O labels.

Many of the most important items were donated to the hovercraft museum at Lee-on-Solent.

Recalling the huge task that confronted him when he and his wife began to clear the house and garden Mr Naylor said: "I don't think there was anything Sir Christopher wasn't interested in."

The couple are hoping to complete the project in time to have Christmas dinner in their new home in December next year.

Sir Christopher Cockerell lived at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight before moving to Hythe in the 1960s.

He is reported to have been living in a nursing home at Sutton Scotney, near Winchester, when he died in 1999. He was 88.