James Coxall was driving with his family past a massive pothole in his village for the umpteenth time when he decided he’d had enough.

The British man has been either swerving around or barrelling over the massive crater in the Cambridgeshire, U.K., village of Castle Camps for the last eight months. But instead of getting mad about it, he decided to do something silly.

With the help of his wife and kids, he built a pair of denim-clad wooden legs and erected them in the middle of the rain-filled hole, giving the appearance of someone falling in, head first.

“We just thought that would be the most amusing way to sort of highlight the pothole,” Coxall told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. “You’ve got to have a laugh and a joke, haven’t you?”

Prank pays off

The pothole in Haverhill Road, he says, is one of many in Castle Camps, and it’s on a road that leads to the nearby town where villagers run their errands. He says he passes it roughly four times a week. 

According to his own measurements, it’s 1.2 metres long, 0.9 metres wide, and 10 centimetres deep. 

“It is incredibly frustrating driving around on the roads with holes everywhere in them and people’s cars getting damaged and your tires getting busted,” Coxall said.

So on Sunday, he channeled his frustration into a protest/prank. He says it was a family affair. 

“The kids helped. We drilled in some wood for the legs. We found an old pair of jeans that were going to the charity shop. We put them on. We stuffed it with some rags. And then we screwed a pair of their old shoes on top,” he said.

“I walked it down there under my arm and the kids went on their bikes. And me, the wife and the kids put it in a pot hole with a brick to sort of weigh it down.”

Almost immediately, Coxall says, he started getting texts from his neighbours asking if the legs were his handiwork. 

“A lot of people who know me know that I’m a bit of a joker,” he said.

He also posted a picture of the legs on a local Facebook group, Odd Things Around Cambridge. His kids, he says, have become school celebrities for their involvement.

Their hard work seems to have paid off. Four days after the legs went up, the pothole was filled in.

“I can confirm that the pothole in question … was fixed yesterday,” Jonathan Kitley, spokesperson for the Cambridge City Council, told CBC in an email.

He did not comment on the legs. 

Coxall says he’s pleased to see the pothole fixed. He says the city has filled it in at least once before, but the repairs didn’t last long. 

“It looks pretty good, but we will have to wait and see, won’t we, if it survives wind and rain and cars driving over it.” he said. “I’m not that confident.”

His family project, meanwhile, remains intact. 

“They didn’t bury the art,” he said. “My wife was driving past and she jumped out of the car and she saved the art off the side of the road.”

The pothole prankster is already looking around for his next target. There are plenty of potholes in the village to choose from, he says. 

“Maybe I’ll do something a bit different. I’ll try Titanic sinking or something into it,” he said. “That would be quite cool, wouldn’t it?”