A PRISON officer’s charming home is going under the hammer for £350,000 – but it comes with a chilling secret.
The Grade II-listed property was once the home of the chief warden for Huntingdon County Jail in Cambridgeshire in the 19th century.
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The prison is long gone – but this property has survived and has some unusual features, including an Anderson bomb shelter and the prison’s well in the garden.
But the property is also holding a more sinister secret.
The owners have also been told there is a mysterious steel dark cell somewhere in the house – which they have not been able to find.
The property is going up for auction with Cambridge-based auctioneers Cheffins.
Huntingdon County Jail had a short-lived history, opening in 1828 and closing in 1886.
In that time, 11,000 imprisonments were recorded but there were also multiple jailbreaks, the first just four months after the prison opened.
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The jail was not popular with locals who felt it drained the ‘impoverished’ agricultural community’s pockets.
When the prison closed in 1886, all the prisoners were moved to Bedford Prison.
Of the original buildings, only the governor’s house, chief warden’s house and the chapel survive.
The current owner’s dad bought the property in 1959, and it is now in need of some refurbishment.
The house has 2,200 sq ft with a kitchen, dining room, sitting room, utility and storerooms on the ground floor, and four bedrooms, a study and a family bathroom on the first floor.
Outside there is a detached brick garage with an attached workshop and an Anderson Shelter built during the Second World War underneath.
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Ian Kitson, from Cheffins, said: “This is a fairly unique property in terms of its history, one of a pair of houses built next to each other.
“It has got a wonderful look to about it, it’s a really handsome house on a corner plot and having an interesting history like that is something people always love to have.
“You can see why people would get excited by it.
“The jail was demolished in the early 20th century, it wasn’t actually standing that long. Where the old jail was, other houses were then built in its place.
“The owner’s parents bought this house in the 1950s and it has had several different guises in the 70 years they have had it, converted into two flats at one point.
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“It was probably refurbished in the 1960s and hasn’t been touched much since so it offers someone the chance to come in and do it to their spec and give it it’s next lease of life.
“The family have always been told that there is a steel-lined cell somewhere within the property.
“I think the suggestion is that the wardens would put inmates there if they were particularly bad, although why you would remove them from the prison I’m not sure.
“They have never been able to find it though. There’s also an Anderson shelter under the floor in the detached garage built during the war.
“It’s extra quirks that adds to the mystery.”
The property will be sold at auction on March 16.
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