Next month, a 16th-century home built by Henry VIII’s chaplain and located in The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield will be auctioned off for as little as £1.
High Heath cottage, popularly known as Mutton’s Castle, in Withy Hill Road, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, will be available for as little as one penny to prospective buyers.
The Grade II-listed servant’s home is surrounded by acres of fields and its own gardens.
The cottage will go under the hammer at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 14 during Bond Wolfe’s next auction, which will be livestreamed.
The 500-year-old unoccupied building located about two miles from the Royal town of Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands is claimed to be one of only a handful of stone houses of its kind in England.
It was constructed in the 1530s by John Harman, who eventually became Bishop Vesey’s and King Henry VIII’s chaplain.
Bishop Vesey is reported to have constructed more than fifty of these stone residences to accommodate his attendants, who maintained discipline in distant areas of his native Sutton Coldfield.
The distinctive tall and narrow detached property will be auctioned off by Bond Wolfe on Wednesday, December 14 with a starting bid of just one pound.
Gurpreet Bassi, the chief executive officer of Bond Wolfe, explained that the price was so low because the abandoned property had fallen into ruin and would require significant renovations.
According to him, the property was constructed in a secluded area that was previously bordered by the open commons of High Heath, but now stands alone in the midst of unhedged farmland.
Mr. Bassi continued, ‘This property has an interesting history and the appearance of a little watchtower, overlooking a lonely stretch of the old Coleshill to Lichfield coach road, now the A446, where highwaymen could wait.
‘By the 19th century, the cottage was part of the Moor Hall Estate, and there was a row of three cottages adjacent to it that was inhabited by agricultural laborers in 1851.
‘However, the neighboring cottages fell into disrepair, and High Heath Cottage still remains alone amid the landscape, as it did nearly 500 years ago.
This three-story property is eligible for development but requires renovation and modernization in accordance with Grade II* building and green belt requirements, in addition to the standard planning approval.
The Withy Hill Road cottage is situated between Moor Hall Hotel and Bassetts Pole. It has two rooms on the first floor, one on the second floor, and one on the third floor.
The Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group explains that the cottage was easy to defend because it originally had only one window on the ground floor.
According to historians, the property got its initial name from a guy who stole a sheep and trapped himself in the cottage.
They wrote, “According to local legend, a man who stole a sheep locked himself in a cottage during a time when sheep theft was a capital offense.”
The dwelling was formerly referred to as “Mutton Castle” since it was believed that he resisted for an extended period.
The cottage will go under the hammer at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, December 14 during Bond Wolfe’s next auction, which will be livestreamed.