BIDDING GOES THROUGH ROOF FOR WARTIME FORT LOCATED NEAR SPURN BIRD OBSERVATORY

 

Mystery bidder - what next for historic estuary fort?

AN historic wartime fort at the mouth of the Humber Estuary this afternoon sold for close to £ half-a-million - almost 10 times the pre-sale guide price!

The Grade II Listed Bull Sand Fort  was Lot 107 in today's online sale conducted by Savills, upmarket estate agents.

Because of the fort's inaccessible location and requirement for total refurbishment, the guide price was a modest £50,000.

But such was the intensity of the bidding that the hammer did not fall until it had reached £490,000.

The identity of neither the vendor, nor the purchaser, have been revealed.

Because the fort is located less than two miles off Spurn Point - and thus likely to be migration stop-off point for rare birds - there was speculation that a wildlife or ornithological group might be an interested party.

But the high price will almost certainly have put it far beyond the means of even the most deep-pocketed of conservation organisations.