For sale: the childhood home that inspired Harry Potter author

Published on Wednesday 13 July 2011 18:18

THE childhood home that inspired Harry Potter author JK Rowling has gone on the market, complete with a trap door and a cupboard under the stairs - and even a secret scrawl penned by the author as a teenager.

Rowling, now 45, wrote her name into paintwork by her bedroom window when she was 17, alongside the words "Joanne Rowling slept here circa 1982".

She lived in the Grade-II listed Church Cottage in the picturesque Gloucestershire village of Tutshill - the name of a Quidditch team in the novels - with her mother Anne, father Peter and sister Diane from the age of nine to 18.

The detached stone cottage is thought to have provided much of the inspiration for the Edinburgh-based author's multi-million-selling Harry Potter series.

Parallels include a dusty, dingy cupboard under the stairs - where Harry is forced to live by his evil auntie Petunia and uncle Vernon Dursley in the books.

There is also a trap door leading to an eerie cellar, which is seen when Harry searches for the Philosopher's Stone in the first novel.

The gothic architecture has echoes of Hogwarts and the house has a pretty cottage garden, including a herb patch similar to that used for Professor Sprout's Herbology lessons.

Current owner Julian Mercer, a BBC producer, bought the three-bedroom house from the Rowling family in 1995 and is now selling it for 399,950.

He has preserved JK Rowling's windowsill graffiti by painting around it whenever he has decorated the bedroom.

Mr Mercer said: "It is a truly 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."