A parish council has secured the land deal of the year - picking up a 10th of an acre plot for just a £1.

The sliver of land, about one metre wide and around 40m long, borders the Wateringbury Playing Fields, and was purchased by the village’s parish council when it went up for sale at auctioneers Clive Emson’s last sale without a reserve price.

The parish council already owned all the land around the land-locked plot and quite how the tiny patch of land had remained in private ownership is a mystery lost in time.

The parish clerk explained: “All we know is that the private owner died recently and the executors put the land up for sale at auction.

“It’s not obvious what use it would have been to anybody else, but we thought it best to purchase it to be on the safe side.”

Land promoters Catesby Estates said that land in the south east with building permission can fetch up to £1m an acre - that’s 100,000 times what the parish paid.

There were no other bidders.