Harry Potter actor Ian Kelly to sell Old Vicarage in Church Street, Eye
A Harry Potter actor is selling his Suffolk house dating back to the 1460s.
The Old Vicarage in Church Street in Eye is currently home to actor and writer Ian Kelly, his wife and two children.
Mr Kelly played Hermione Granger’s father in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I.
The sympathetically restored Grade-II listed home, built as a medieval presbytery, boasts a fascinating history and features the bed from the film Shakespeare in Love, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes.
One of Mr Kelly’s favourite features of the house is the minstrels’ gallery double-height entrance hall.
“I believe it is unique to the vicarages in East Anglia,” he said.
“I also like the literary connection. Alexander Pope’s editor, Dr William Broome, was the vicar of Eye, and he translated the Iliad and Odyssey in the study library of the Old Vicarage.”
In the past, Mr Kelly and his wife have offered Airbnb guests a chance to sleep in the bed located in the Georgian wing of the building.
“I have a great affection for the bed and the story. I think it is one of the more important beds in the history of cinema,” said Mr Kelly.
“There are very few that have been quite as central to the plot of a movie as that one. It is quite astonishing that it should find itself in rural Suffolk.”
Mr Kelly, who moved with his family to Eye four-and-a-half years ago, said it was partly the Old Vicarage that attracted him to the area.
“Eye is the most beautiful small town in England but it was really for the Old Vicarage,” he said. “It is a unique house and there is nothing like it.
“It is the whole history of Eye in one building and it’s an amazing party and family house, with a beautiful garden and also exactly what we were looking for.”
The Old Vicarage is currently on the market for £1.25 million. The bed is not part of the sale.
“We have no idea yet what will happen to the bed,” added Mr Kelly. “My friends from LA tell me I should ship it over to Melrose Avenue, but I rather think it should stay in rural England.”