Enid Blyton's cottage goes on sale

Old Thatch, the former home of Enid Blyton which would become the setting for the first of her Mystery series of novels, has been put up for sale for almost £2m.

Blyton lived in the 17th-century cottage from 1929 to 1938, writing in her diary that it was “perfect, both outside and in ... just like a Fairy Tale house and three minutes from the river”. The children for whom she wrote her column “Letter to Children” in the magazine Teachers’ World suggested possible names for the author’s new thatched cottage – “these included Pixie Cottage, Ding Dong-Bell Cottage, Pet Cottage, Fairy Cottage and Brownie Cottage”, Barbara Stoney writes in her biography of the novelist – but Blyton stayed with “the name it has had for a long, long time – ‘Old Thatch’”.

She would begin her Wishing Chair and Faraway Tree series while living at Old Thatch, as well as her Brer Rabbit books and, once she had left, would set her popular Five Find-Outers series in a fictionalised version of the local area. Following the adventures of a group of children led by Frederick Algernon Trotteville (Fatty) who solve mysteries before the incompetent local policeman Mr Goon, the first novel, The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage, is believed to be located around Old Thatch itself.

“They all poured down to the end of the lane,” writes Blyton in the 1943 novel. “The glare became higher and brighter. ‘It’s not the house!’ cried Larry, ‘it’s the cottage he works in, in the garden – his workroom. Golly, there won’t be much left of it!’ There certainly wouldn’t. The place was old, half-timbered and thatched, and the dry straw of the roof was blazing strongly.”

The property, which runs to over an acre, is now for sale for £1.85m, and is described by its estate agent as “magical”, with “huge character”. The current owners have lived in Old Thatch for over 20 years, with the redesigned garden included in The Most Amazing Gardens in Britain & Ireland by Reader’s Digest in 2010.