A HOUSE in Lostwithiel has something of an unusual quirk - a lease running until the year 4652.

The home in Lostwithiel has a unique plaque been built into the wall which states that owner Walter Kendal in 1658 took out a 3,000-year-old lease on the home.

The original document still lives in archives in Kew, London, while the granite plaque reads: "Walter Kendal of Lostwithiell was founder of this house in 1658. Hath a Lease for Three Thousand Yeares which had beginning the 29th of September Anno 1652".

According to the plaque, the lease on the house will expire on the year 4652. The original document belonged to Walter Kendal and Mr Francis Buller.

Local blogger Elizabeth Dale told the BBC: "Walter was born in 1608 to Thomas Kendal and Elizabeth Arscott and was the eldest of their eight children.

"He did marry a lady called Margaret Symon in 1642 and they had three children together- and he is described as a 'gentleman'.

"What I found really interesting was during his lifetime, just a couple of years after him and Margaret married, was the period of civil war and coming to Cornwall, Lostwithiel was particularly badly affected.

"There was a battle in the town that lasted for 13 days and we're close to the anniversary of it actually. It was from August 21 to September, 2 1644.

''A lot of the fighting centered around the castle but the parliamentarian forces did destroy a lot of the buildings in the town centre itself, including much of the Old Duchy Palace that housed the Duchy parliament from 1289 and the church itself was desecrated as well.

"According to legend the parliamentarian troops used it to house their horses whilst occupying the town and they shot a canon at the building.

"Although we don't know much about Walter personally we know the Kendal's were royalists and this was a big royalist victory for them.

"So it makes me wonder whether Walter was involved in any of the fighting and whether his idea of planning ahead, having a 3,000-year-old lease, came from the insecurity and turmoil he had experienced in his life."

Walter Kendal died in 1693 and was buried at Lostwithiel.

Jo Caistor, who has lived in the house for seven years, admits she does not know a lot about Walter Kendal himself.

She explained: "I know the Kendal’s were a big name around Lostwithiel, and the family owned a lot of property in the area for hundreds of years. And I think they're still there just outside of Lostwithiel.

“I do know that it was a malt house, there's a fertility (harvest) symbol high up on the wall in on the road. The lease is irrelevant - I don’t have to pay a fee or anything. They weren't too sure when we bought the house if the 3,000-year-old lease is true or if it was put in when the malt house was built.”