JK Rowlings’ Childhood Home for Sale

Just in time for the release of the last Harry Potter film, the childhood home of author JK Rowlings is for sale in England. Church Cottage, on the Welsh borders, near Chepstow, is on the market for the very reasonable £400,000. The house is located in the village of Tutshill, which for those who know their Harry Potter, is the also the name of Tutshill Tornadoes, one of the teams that plays Quidditch. It is also close to both Chepstow Castle and the Chepstow Racecourse, where I spent many happy afternoons, and won piles of dosh! Church Cottage was built as a school house by the Gothic Revivalist architect, Henry Woodyer, around 1852. The property retains many of its original features.One of the bedrooms features a small inscription of the windowsill “Joanne Rowling slept here circa 1982”, which even after several renovations, remains. The cottage is surrounded by gardens with fruit trees, roses, perennial flowers and a lily pond. There are three bedrooms, some of which have views over the Severn River estuary. Growing up in a house like Church Cottage must have given JK Rowling some of the material for the Harry Potter books, don’t you think? Wizard!