In 1968, a California man began building a castle from scrap steel, bottles and old motorcycles; 20 years later it had a 74-foot clock tower

In 1968, Michael Rubel began building something that was never meant to be an ordinary home. On his family’s 2.5-acre citrus farm in Glendora, California, Rubel had already started constructing a private retreat from discarded bottles he collected from parties held by his mother. But the project kept growing until it became Rubel Castle , an extraordinary structure assembled from materials most people would have thrown away. Over the next 18 years, Rubel transformed salvaged concrete, stones, broken bottles and motorcycle parts into a sprawling hand-built complex. Its most recognisable feature eventually rose 74 feet into the California sky, a towering clock tower that gave the homemade castle an unmistakable silhouette. The project also attracted hundreds of volunteers, who helped Rubel cement and construct the unusual structures.