Westward Ho!'s 'Haunted House' Sold At Auction

A twelve-bed house has been sold at auction for more than £400,000 but the new owner best be warned as locals claim the Victorian clifftop property is haunted.

The house has stunning views over the Atlantic but comes with one drawback, it is widely referred to as the "haunted house." Neighbours claim they hear strange noises coming from the property at night, and an elderly lady has been spotted sitting at the window and waving.

The property, in Westward Ho! in Devon also needs "extensive refurbishment", and has huge cracks in the walls, with some rooms too dangerous to enter but that didn't stop local businessman Rob Braddick from taking on the challenge, he won the former B&B Seafield House at auction for £414,000, about the same price as a small London flat.

Rob, who runs several bars, restaurants and holidays centres said "it adjoins a holiday park I own already but I have no idea what I am going to do with it. I have got business interests in the village and may attach it to someone but it is all totally fluid at the moment."

"I am aware of its reputation as a haunted house as I live just 400 yards away and have lived here for 40 years," he continued, "it has always looked the same and does look like a haunted house but luckily I'm not afraid of ghosts."

Rob's immediate plan is "to keep an eye on it and I will have a good think, it is an empty shell at the moment," but confesses that he had no plans to buy the building in advance, "this morning I woke up and I was not even going to bid on it, but then I thought why not? I was surprised to see it go for that low a price to be honest."

The home was originally built in the 1880s as a summer residence for London banker Brinsley De Courcey Nixon. It was used by the Ministry of Defence during the Second World War as officers' quarters with Italian prisoners of war housed in nearby fields.

The property was then purchased in the 1950s and has been in the same family since then. It became a bed and breakfast establishment for a number of years and then was used as a residential property.

Andrew Trump, manager of estate agency Seldons, who organised the auction, said: "Nobody has been in here except the owner and a few people who cared for her for many years. It was completely choc-a-bloc with stuff, some of the rooms still had the original bedsheets from when it was a bed and breakfast."

According to the estate agent it took three months to clear the house for sale, he says "we found ledgers from guests dating back to 1968." Three truckloads of Edwardian, Georgian and Victorian furniture from the house have already been sold at auction.

Before the sale in January, auctioneer Robert Pyle described it as looking like "something out of a horror movie from the outside".

While the residence is in need of extensive renovation and refurbishment, the accommodation is spacious and spread over three storeys with 12 bedrooms. It was advertised as having great scope for development.