From Clare Morgan

Here is one self-build home that got around the planning laws! A CLASSIC BUS that had been converted into a UK home sold at auction for 132,500. The 1920s bus had been parked on clifftops at Porthtowan, Cornwall, by a miner in the 1930s. Over the years it was added to and turned into a one bedroom property with a balcony and sea views.

Only two people bid for the home at the auction, which was held at the Penventon Hotel, Redruth. The successful bidder was George Kinsella, originally from London, who had sold up and moved to Cornwall.

“This is the first time I have ever bought anything by auction and I am very pleased. I thought it would fetch a lot more.
“I am going to move into it. I have been coming here for years and looking at the properties on the cliff.”

Mike and Maggie Adkins, the sellers of the property, are now off on a tour of Britain in a camper van.

Called Boskernyk the home still has the original bus roof and chassis, now under the living room floor. A Bradford and Bingley spokesman said: “The bus was converted, using concrete block and timber, it has been said that around that time the mining industry had begun to collapse and miners were being made homeless. Therefore this cliff became home to many forms of cheap accommodation.
“The next door plot once housed a coal wagon and many other plots had wooden chalets built on them. Sadly there are now only three remaining. The others have been demolished to make way for newer, modern bungalows.”

Tags: off-the-grid