Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s childhood home is for sale.
Church Cottage, in Tutshill, Chepstow, has been put on the market for £399,950 – and it’s more than likely that the Grade II-listed building inspired Harry Potter’s magical world.
Originally built as a schoolhouse by Gothic Revivalist architect Henry Woodyer in c.1852, Rowling’s childhood home features an under-stairs area which, although currently open and housing nothing more sinister than a desk, could well have inspired the under-stairs cupboard Potter spends much of his childhood shut away in.
Furthermore, the vaulted ceilings and tiled floors of Church Cottage’s hall might have contributed to Rowling’s vision of Hogwarts, the wizarding school attended by Harry and his friends Hermione and Ron. And the cellar (accessed by trapdoor) might remind Potter fans of the one guarded by the three-headed dog in the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Super-keen Potter fans will also have noticed that the village in which JK Rowling grew up – Tutshill – makes a cameo in the books as the hometown of Quidditch team the Tutshill Tornadoes.
But perhaps the most exciting feature of Church Cottage is to be found in the third bedroom. In the window frame, there is a small inscription that reads: “Joanne Rowling slept here circa 1982”.
The Guardian reports that current owner and BBC producer Julian Mercer said: “It is a lovely cottage. It is quite small but has wonderful architecture and a gorgeous garden surrounding it.
“JK Rowling would have been here in her formative years and could have taken inspiration from the cottage. The architecture is very Hogwarts-like. It has vaulted ceilings, stone windows and oozes gothic spirit.
“When we first moved in, JK Rowling was not a known name and it was a couple of years later that the Philosopher’s Stone came out.
“It was then that we knew the significance of the name written on the windowsill. We have redecorated the house completely since moving in but we always painted around it.”
The detached Church Cottage has three bedrooms (two with ‘part estuary’ views), two reception rooms and one bathroom. Cosy touches like stripped wood floors and the living room’s Villager wood-burning stove are evident throughout the house.
There’s a gorgeous sunny garden, which features plum, holly and crab apple trees, roses, a small pond with lily pads and ornamental shrubs. At the end of the garden there are hedges and a small gate which gives the owner direct access to the playing field behind the property.
According to the Guardian, Rowling left the Chepstow area when she went to Exeter University. She moved to Bristol after graduating, and penned the first Potter novel on a train journey while living in Edinburgh.
Church Cottage is on the market for £399,950. For more information or to arrange a viewing, contact Properts (01291 627268).
Want to be the first to know when we break a story? Follow @AboutUs on Twitter and subscribe to our free weekly newsletter.
