The Old Rectory in Sprotbrough, near Doncaster, dates back to the 17th century and was remodelled in the Gothic style in 1850, after the Church of England purchased it.

Bader, who was credited with 22 aerial victories while a pilot in the RAF during World War Two, grew up in the 10-bedroom property in the 1920s, after his mother married the local vicar, the Reverend Ernest Hobbs, and moved her family from London. His father, a civil engineer who had been working in colonial India, died in 1922 from complications caused by wounds sustained in World War One.

Although he was sent away to boarding school in Oxford, The Old Rectory is where many of Bader's teenage escapades took place. He shot a local woman with an air gun through her bathroom window as she was about to enter a bath, and the vicarage's dining room window still has a crack from one of his pellets. He also went poaching in the woods near the house, which is a short walk from the River Don and Sprotbrough Flash.

He joined the RAF in 1928, but continued to visit to see his family, and was known for driving a small red MG sports car around the village.

He even flew over Sprotbrough once in a biplane and threw a parcel containing his mother's birthday present into the rectory garden.

In 1931 he lost both of his legs after a flying accident, but returned to Sprotbrough to convalesce. He was eventually invalided out of the RAF and joined Shell until the outbreak of war, when he was accepted back into the forces.

Bader took part in missions over Dunkirk and achieved fame for his exploits in the Battle of Britain, but was eventually captured in Nazi-occupied France and ended up a prisoner at the notorious Colditz Castle until the war ended, after which he returned to working in the petroleum industry. He died in 1982.

Bader's stepfather died in 1948 aged 61, while still the rector of Sprotbrough, and his mother had returned to live in the south of England by the time she died in 1957.

Local businessman Trevor Miller bought The Old Rectory in the early 1980s, when it was in a poor condition, and restored it and ran it as a bed and breakfast until the property was sold in 2008. He was also known for his classic car collection.

Part of the original wooded grounds have since been sold off for housing, but gardens of around an acre remain.

The Old Rectory is for sale for £1.7million with Doncaster estate agents Robinson Hornsby.

Yorkshire rectory where World War Two flying ace Douglas Bader lived for sale for £1.7million