One in 10 Brits has a secret room in their home – and it took an average of five years before they realised.

According to www.Hillarys.co.uk, items as diverse as teeth, bones and garden gnomes have been found in weird hidden rooms across the country.

Mystery doors and hatches are more common still - one in eight Brits has one.

2,456 UK-based owners of older properties were polled for the study, with 38 per cent saying their home was ‘creepy’.

When asked if they’d ever found something in their home that they weren’t expecting, 67 per cent answered ‘yes’: 13 per cent had found mystery doors or hatches and 11 per cent had found a secret room.

The creepiest contents included:

1. A room that looked as if someone had been living in it

2. A room at the end of a garden with hundreds of gnome statues in it

3. A small room full of men’s magazines

4. A room under the stairs with teeth and little bones located in it

5. A small room with a bible and upside-down cross in it

Tara Hall, spokesperson for www.Hillarys.co.uk, said: “Old homes have the reputation of being creepy; this survey reveals they can be random and sometimes even scary!”

Does your home have any hidden rooms containing gnomes, bones or bibles? We’d love to hear about it if so. Email us on jane.howdle@archant.co.uk with your most memorable findings!