JK ROWLING'S childhood home is attracting the interest or Harry Potter fans from across the country after being put up for sale.

The three-bedroom, Grade II listed detached cottage in Tutshill with its own gardens and driveway is on sale for £400,000.

J.K. Rowling has scrawled graffiti on one of the windowframes and it comes with a cupboard under the stairs, and a trapdoor to a gloomy cellar that was the inspiration behind the last chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Current owner Julian Mercer, a BBC producer, described the architecture as "Hogwarts-like."

But what will really have fans drooling is an inscription in her old bedroom: "Joanne Rowling slept here circa 1982."

"The house has always received attention," Julian said, "especially when a new novel or movie has come out.

"We've had many Potter fans standing outside with cameras."

The storm of media attention that has gathered around Church Cottage seems set to drive the price up.

Rowling lived in Tutshill between 1974 and 1982, when she left to attend Exeter University.

She came back to visit the village in 2001 as part of a TV biography.

Eventually her family sold the house to Julian in when they moved out of the area in 1995.