A CAVE home cut into a sandstone cliff sold for £100,000 - four times the asking price - at auction in Kidderminster.

The sale of Rock Cottage, Sladd Lane, Wolverley, attracted international media interest.

It was a cave that was converted into a home last lived in during the late 1940s.

It quickly outstripped its pre-sale guide price of £25,000, with five bidders still competing after the price passed £50,000, in Kidderminster on Wednesday last week.

The property eventually sold to a near neighbour who intended to keep the cave home, three nearby caves and nearly five acres of mixed woodland exactly as they were.

The auction was conducted by Roger Sadler, director of Kidderminster-based estate agency, Halls, who described the response to Rock Cottage as "unbelievable".

In the three days leading up to the auction Mr Sadler, fellow director, Daniel Lovatt and three other members of staff were constantly taking telephone calls from prospective buyers and the media.

Mr Sadler said he had lost count of the number of interviews he and Mr Lovatt had given but they included radio stations in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, across England and even in Denmark.

Following the international interest, he added, it was pleasing that Rock Cottage had been purchased by a local person.

"She just wants the caves and woodland to stay as they are," he explained, "It was a unique property that attracted an unbelievable amount of interest.

"It was the most media interest that we have ever attracted for a property auction. The challenge now is to find another exciting property to sell."

Before the auction, prospective buyers had travelled from all over the UK to view the cave home, which has a front door and windows, together with fireplaces, a pantry, sitting room and one bedroom. One of the three adjoining caves also has four rooms.

The cave homes, which were last occupied after the Second World War, have no electricity or water supplies and Halls said there was a question mark over whether they would be suitable for living in.

The televised auction, held at the Gainsborough House Hotel, Bewdley Hill, was arranged on behalf of executors of the late Mrs H M W Willcock, who owned the caves.