Church Cottage in the village of

Tutshill Tutshill is a village within the parish of Tidenham in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the eastern bank of the River Wye, which forms the boundary with Monmouthshire at this point and which separates the village f ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England, is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

, thought to have been designed by the architect

Henry Woodyer Henry Woodyer (1816–1896) was an English architect, a pupil of William Butterfield and a disciple of A. W. N. Pugin and the Ecclesiologists. Life Woodyer was born in Guildford, Surrey, England, in 1816, the son of a successful, highly resp ...

. It was the childhood home, between the ages of 9 and 18, of

Joanne Rowling Joanne Rowling ( ; born 31 July 1965), known by her pen name , is a British author and philanthropist. She is the author of ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume fantasy novel series published from 1997 to 2007. The series has List of best-sell ...

, author (as J. K. Rowling) of the ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'' series of fantasy books.

Description

The building was constructed in about 1852 in the

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style, and was originally used as a

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

house and then a

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

. Free Press (Monmouthshire), ''Tutshill home where Harry Potter author JK Rowling grew up goes up for sale'', 13 July 2011
Accessed 13 July 2011 Henry Woodyer designed the adjoining St. Luke's Church, and

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

regard him as "possibly" the designer of the cottage as well. The -storey building is of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, with a tiled roof, two-light

chamfer A chamfer ( ) is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fur ...

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed casements, small gablets and a porch. In 1988 it was listed, Grade II, as being of "Special Architectural or Historic Interest" by English Heritage, who reported its external appearance as "untouched from its original design".

J. K. Rowling

Joanne Rowling, together with her parents and sister, moved to the house in 1974 when she was aged nine. The house was sold by the Rowling family in 1995, and then sold again in 2011. The owner, Julian Mercer, said of the house in 2011: "J. K. Rowling would have been here in her formative years and could have taken inspiration from the cottage. The architecture is very

Hogwarts Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry () is a fictional boarding school of magic for young wizards. It is the primary setting for the first six novels in the '' Harry Potter'' series by J. K. Rowling, and also serves as a major setti ...

-like. It has vaulted ceilings, stone windows and oozes gothic spirit." Features inside the house include an under-stairs cupboard, reportedly similar to the one in which Rowling's character Harry Potter is forced to live, and a trapdoor to a cellar. It also contains an inscription written on one window-frame, "Joanne Rowling slept here circa 1982". Steven Morris, ''The ultimate Harry Potter memorabilia: JK Rowling's childhood home is for sale'', The Guardian, 13 July 2011
Accessed 13 July 2011 Rowling also drew inspiration from the adjoining church graveyard, and the local countryside. She attended the nearby

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

in Tutshill, before moving on to Wyedean

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

, and later named one of her fictional

Quidditch Quidditch () is a fictional sport invented by author J. K. Rowling for her fantasy book series ''Harry Potter''. It first appeared in the novel ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' (1997). In the series, Quidditch is portrayed as a dang ...

teams as the "Tutshill Tornados".

Ownership

When the cottage was sold by a subsequent owner in 2012, it was reported that its new owners were associated with the Volant Charitable Trust, a charity established by Rowling to support research into

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

and other activities. Further reports in 2020 suggested that the cottage is currently owned by a company run by Rowling's husband, and that she was intending to refurbish the property while retaining its original features. Janet Hughes, "Harry Potter author JK Rowling renovating the childhood home in Gloucestershire she secretly bought years ago", ''Gloucestershire Live'', 13 April 2020
Retrieved 13 April 2020

References

{{Reflist Grade II listed houses in Gloucestershire Tidenham J. K. Rowling