IT FEELS a million miles away from the bustling world of running a busy hotel.

Yet Andrew Norfolk's idyllic-looking waterplant business is in fact only a few miles from the Cow and Calf, at Ilkley.

The former hotelier – who ran the business there from 1980 to 1998 – created his specialist venture by transforming his family garden at Chevin End, between Otley and Menston, some 25 years ago.

The work involved changing a large lawn into a tiered garden packed with water features, including several large ponds designed to showcase his impressive water lily collection.

Also a keen painter for the past 15 years, Andrew has recently had a horse barn in his grounds specially converted to act as a gallery to create a complementary business.

He said: "The inspiration for the painting to begin with was to paint the lilies and water plants I'm selling – to create a sort of 'Monet effect' – but the interest has grown.

"Watercolour is definitely my favourite medium but I also like to use wax, splatter and things to make it interesting.

"Most of my customers have no idea there's an art gallery here and will only notice it when they come up, when it attracts a bit of interest.

"I do the painting in the winter and focus on the water plants in the summer, which works out well."

The selection of works he has on display cover a wide range of subjects, from water lilies and fish to landscapes, seascapes, animals, people and birds.

He hopes they add a new dimension to the service he provides, which he describes as being a cross between a 'pond doctor' and plant supplier.

Andrew added: "For a lot of people I deal with, it's their first proper pond and they want to come here to get ideas and sources of inspiration, as well as the plants themselves.

"I get some good contracts working with local contractors, who build ponds and then ask me to go along and plant them up.

"Because of the amount of plants I have here, I can do that fairly quickly, sometimes by splitting some of the plants in my own ponds, if necessary, and it means the customer gets a 'finished' pond almost instantly."

With a backdrop of Koi Carp gliding past the the roots of large lilies while damsel flies alight on eye-catching pond-side plants, Andrew happily acknowledges his current role is "very different" to his hectic time in the hotel trade.

But he also credits the Cow and Calf with actually first firing his passion for water plants and ponds.

He said: "It was there, thanks to the hotel's big Victorian tarn and the gardens, which my mother put a lot of work into, were I really got into all this."