THE childhood home which inspired JK Rowling to write the Harry Potter books
has gone on the market complete with a cupboard under the stairs.

The property also features a trapdoor and a secret scrawl penned by the author
as a teen.

The writer, now 45, etched her name into paintwork by her bedroom window
alongside the words “Joanne Rowling slept here circa 1982” when
she was 17.

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

The detached stone building is thought to have provided much of the
inspiration behind the multi-million selling Potter series.

The house has a number of features reflected in the book, including the dusty
cupboard under the stairs like the one Harry was forced to live
in by his auntie and uncle.

In the dining room, there is a trapdoor which opens to a ‘scary’ small and
damp cellar and old rain water reservoir not dissimilar to the one
protected by a three-headed dog called Fluffy in her first novel the
Philosopher’s Stone.

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

He has preserved Rowling’s windowsill graffiti by painting around it whenever
he has decorated the room.