IT may be described as semi-detached - but that is where any resemblance to the average family home ends.

Just on the market is an Englishman's home that really is a castle, complete with turrets, imposing battlements and a long and royal history.

Snape Castle, between Bedale and Ripon, in North Yorkshire, was once the home of Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII and, as such, Queen of England.

Now the Grade I-listed building is up for grabs at what appears, on the face of it, a bargain basement asking price of £325,000.

Even the agents admit it would take another £100,000 to bring it up to a reasonable standard, or as much as £250,000 to make the accommodation of top-quality level.

But that has not stopped more than 400 people making serious inquiries - so many that they are having to be shown round in batches.

The rather special semi - the other half of the castle is occupied - even boasts a chapel, although that is excluded from the sale and will still be used for worship by the local community.

Catherine Parr lived at the castle with her second husband, Lord John Latimer. He died in 1542 and the following year she married King Henry - and went on to outlive him.

The garden includes a scheduled ancient monument, part of an old tower from the original castle, which needs restoration and cannot be pulled down.

But despite that, agent Tony Wright, of the Harrogate office of Carter Jonas, said people were not put off.

"The interest has been quite remarkable. We had about 200 inquiries alone over the past weekend," he said.

He said the huge interest being shown from all over the country was not just because of the royal links but because of the "element of curiosity" of owning a semi-detached castle.

The property includes four bedrooms, attic rooms, tower rooms, an undercroft, three sizeable reception rooms and three gardens, one of which is walled.

The castle was built by the Neville family in 1426 and was once known as Snape House.

When battlements were added it became known as Snape Castle and was successively owned by the Cecil family, the 9th Earl of Exeter and William Millbank of Thorp Perrow.

Catherine - on a Parr with the most learned ladies

* Born at Kendal Castle, Westmoreland, in 1512, Catherine Parr was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr and Maud Green.

* Her father was the Controller of the Household of King Henry at the beginning of his reign. She was regarded as one of the most learned ladies of the age.

* She was first married to Sir John Edward, who died in 1529, and then, between 1530 and 1533, to John Neville, Lord Latimer of Snape Castle, who died in 1542.

* Despite being courted by Sir Thomas Seymour, the scoundrel brother of Jane, she became the sixth wife of Henry VIII on July 12, 1543, at Hampton Court Palace and helped reconcile him with the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth.

* Henry died in January, 1547, and she went on to marry her one-time beau Sir Thomas. She became pregnant for the first time but died during childbirth on September 7, 1548, at Sudeley Castle, in Gloucestershire.

Sir Thomas was executed for high treason in 1549.