This wonderful piece of history has been successfully sold by auctioneer and Mayfair Office member, Dudley Singleton of Dudley Singleton & Daughter, Pangbourne, on 8 December 2010 at Pangbourne Village Hall - £210,000 

Situated within the historic (medieval) core of the old village of Purley (Purley Parva), which was recorded in the Domesday Book and therefore has late Saxon origins, Jasmine Cottage was constructed in the 1600s and it is recorded in West Berkshire Historic Environment Record Notes that ‘a sword, musket and horse skeleton’ were found in the gardens of a 17th century cottage in the 1960s. 

This pretty, semi detached period cottage, in need of renovation, has been sold, together with a valuable planning permission for extension.  The property shows fine examples of exposed beams, inglenook fireplaces and a cellar beneath the floor of the dining room is understood to have been used in the Civil War to harbour escaping Royalists with a tunnel leading down to Mapledurham Lock.  There is a house lying adjacent, which also harboured Royalists and it is understood the tunnels linked.  Archaeologists discovered a skeleton of a buried horse in full battle armour nearby understood to have belonged to a murdered Cromwellian soldier. This part of Purley is steeped in history.