Six properties, ranging from country cottages requiring renovation and modernisation to blocks of pastureland and woodland, sold for nearly £1m at Hall's collective auction in Shrewsbury last week, which saw a country cottage, Yew Tree Cottage, Ellerdine Heath, near Telford, sell for £313,000.

More than 60 people viewed Yew Tree Cottage, a three-bedroom property set in around 1.34 acres of gardens and pasture paddocks, in the run up to the auction and bidding soon raced away from its guide price of £190,000 to £200,000. The buyer exercised an option to purchase an additional 3.4 acres of land for £35,000.

“The cottage is in a totally private location equidistant to Shrewsbury and Telford, so ideal for commuting,” said auctioneer Allen Gittins, a director of Halls. “It had been used as a holiday let and had a paddock to the front and rear. The cottage had room to extend, so had great potential for making into a serious country house.”

A rare and interesting development opportunity, comprising a barn with planning permission for two dwellings, two additional building plots and adjacent paddocks at Ightfield, near Whitchurch, sold for £240,000. The barn has planning consent for conversion in to three- and two-bedroom homes, while the building plots are for four- and three-bedroom properties. The development occupies a two-acre site.