Enchanting fairytale cottage built in the 1830s is for sale for less than the average first London home

The fairytale-style cottage has a thatched roof and tree trunk veranda

(Picture: Minors & Brady)

It looks like a home fit for a hobbit or a woodland elf — and this unique two bedroom house could be yours for £400,000.

The Gothic-style brick cottage with its thatched roof and rustic tree trunk veranda was built in the 1830s and is Grade II listed.

It was originally a gate house built at the entrance of an adjacent Georgian manor house, at a time when this kind of cute ornamental cottage was hugely fashionable. It comes with an annex built in the same fairytale style.

According to Historic England the two-bedroom property is of “national importance”.

With its “totally normal” door heights, the cottage makes for a unique but functional home (Minors & Brady)

The cottage has been home to Sue and Scott Reeder since 2007. “I used to drive past here when I was a teenager, and I always wished I could live in it,” said Sue, 57, a psychic artist.

“It is just so enchanting and when it came up for sale it just felt like it was meant for us.”

Despite its diminutive size Sue said that the door heights are “totally normal” making the cottage liveable for those of above-Hobbit height.

She and Scott, 53, who also run a business selling vintage stock at car boot sales, use the annexe as a games room although originally Sue believes it might have been used as a pantry and storeroom. “There is an original bread oven still in it,” she explained.

As well as the two-bedroom home, pictured, there is also an annex which is currently used as a games room (Minors & Brady)

The gardens come with two thirds of an acre of gardens, with a pond and more than a dozen useful sheds and outbuildings and is in the Norfolk village of East Harling.

Trains from Harling Road railway station to Norwich take around half an hour. From there you can be in the City in around two hours.

Sue and Scott have decided to move because, having recently received an inheritance from Sue’s mother, they are looking for a change of scene.

Sue will particularly miss her spacious gardens. “It is so private when you shut the gates,” she said.

“It is a very unusual, quirky little property,” said Jamie Minors of Minors & Brady estate agents which is selling the house.

“There are two types of buyers — those coming from out of area, London or Cambridgeshire, who are looking for a bolthole or even to relocate, or local downsizers who want something small and easier to maintain.

“It would also do well as an Airbnb because they do say that their quirky stays attract a lot of visitors.

“It is priced at £400,000, compared to half a million quid for an average London first-time buyer flat.”