House buyer 'must run book club'

The unusual clause was added to the deeds of the former rectory

A woman selling her £700,000 home has come up with a novel condition of sale - that any new owner must agree to host meetings of the local book club.

Gilly Savage, 56, has had the unusual clause added to the deeds of her former rectory in the village of Stratton, near Dorchester, Dorset.

Mrs Savage helped set up the club, which now has 15 members, in 1996.

She said she hoped would-be owners would see the book club as a way of getting to know the village community.

You can't really get 15 people into the average sitting room Gilly Savage

"It can take a long time to get to know any part of a new community, and here is an instant way of doing it," she said.

The grandmother is leaving the village after 13 years because she needs to "downsize" from the four-bedroom detached home.

She came up with the clause during one of the monthly meetings of the club.

She said: "We were having a meeting and someone said 'Where are we going to meet when you leave?'

"I said, in jest, 'Don't worry, I'm going to have it written into the deeds so it will all be fine'.

"When I went to see my solicitor I mentioned this flippantly and he said actually they could do that."

Mrs Savage said the rectory's large rooms made it the perfect venue for the meetings: "You can't really get 15 people into the average sitting room."

She added: "It has got a lovely ambiance and it does have a literary connection - the house was designed by the architects that Thomas Hardy worked for."