A nine-bedroom 17th century home in Norfolk which housed RAF officers - including Sir Arthur Travers 'Bomber' Harris - is for sale.

Eastern Daily Press: Normandy House, HinghamNormandy House, Hingham (Image: Strutt & Parker)

Normandy House, Hardingham Street, Hingham, was built by a local farmer in about 1690.

After his death it was donated to the Church with an endowment to form a grammar school.

The house originally had 800 acres gifted and the income from the land and the school funded the boys to board weekly.

Eastern Daily Press: Normandy House, HinghamNormandy House, Hingham (Image: Strutt & Parker)

This continued up to the First World War when the RAF used the house as an officers' mess and planes were maintained in what is now the garden.

It is thought that Sir Arthur stayed there when he was a fighter pilot.

He would go on to command the RAF in the Second World War and earned his nickname for his policy of implementing night-time raids on German cities.

During the Second World War the house became a private residence.

Owned by a Lady Fletcher, she named it Normandy House after being persuaded to leave France in 1941, where her husband was buried, because of the German invasion.

She lived there until 1969. The current owners bought the property in 1975 meaning there have been only four owners of Normandy House since it was built.

Eastern Daily Press: Normandy House, HinghamNormandy House, Hingham (Image: Strutt & Parker)

Sarah Power, one of the daughters of the late owners, grew up there with her sisters and even had her wedding reception there.

"My father who was in the army grew up in India, and although he loved Norfolk, he told my mum when they were looking for a house that he needed some undulation, not flat land, as he'd known the Himalayas. So that brought them to south Norfolk.

"It's been a very happy house, great to entertain in and I remember climbing in its magnolia tree with low branches as a child.

"We'll miss Christmas and Easter here, this house pulled us all together as a family."

Eastern Daily Press: Normandy House, HinghamNormandy House, Hingham (Image: Strutt & Parker)

The house, which dates to the William and Mary period, has a dining room and drawing room. Its school wing has its own sitting room and three bedrooms and outside, there are stables and gardens in 1.4 acres.