Key to Paul McCartney's childhood home up for sale

A "remarkable piece of Beatles history" will go under the hammer next month at a Gloucestershire auction house.

Sir Paul McCartney lived with his family at 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton, Liverpool, for eight years until 1963, where he composed some of The Beatles' earliest songs with bandmate John Lennon.

After McCartney and, later, his brother and father moved out, a front door key and a photograph of the house was enclosed in a letter to American fan Kathy Salt from then-occupant Ashley Jones, in 1965.

The three items will be auctioned together by South Cerney auctioneers Dominic Winter on 7 October, and are expected to fetch between £2,000-£3,000.

McCartney moved into the council house in 1955 with his parents, Mary and Jim and his brother, Mike.

A year after the family moved in, Mary died and it was then that Jim began encouraging his son's musical development, giving him a guitar.

The living room of the house, described by current owner the National Trust as "the birthplace of the Beatles", is where McCartney and Lennon wrote "There's a Place", and "She Loves You".

Salt, who said she was a "hopelessly lovesick Beatlemaniac", was 13 when she wrote a letter to Jones from her New York home.

Replying, Jones explained he had been given two original keys to the house, where he lived with his wife, Sheila, and believed the key he was sending, may have been McCartney's own.

Six decades later, Salt said it was time to part with the key, along with other items in her collection, after a lifetime of devotion to The Beatles.

"I'm hopeful that my treasures might become someone else's to hold dear," she said.

Chris Albury, director of the auctioneers, said it was unusual to encounter a Beatles artefact "with such compelling provenance" that had such "a direct and personal connection" to the band.

"The key offers a uniquely personal connection to one of the most famous addresses in Beatles history, made all the more remarkable by the story behind its discovery," Albury said.

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