MPs have urged the owners of a remote Cornish village not to put the community up for sale again as it risks having a "devastating effect".

On Monday, the Western Morning News reported that the Manor of Trevalga between Tintagel and Boscastle, North Cornwall, was off the market while lawyers wrangle over a question of ownership.

The manor, along with its five tenant farms and 16 rented houses and cottages, was being sold off an asking price of £10 million by Marlborough College in Wiltshire, which was left the land in a will.

Lawyers for the college had discovered that the trust set up by the man who bought it in 1934 – the late Mr Gerald Curgenven – was invalid because it did not have an end date or ultimate beneficiary.

The college then claimed ownership of the Trevalga estate, but became concerned that owning such a large asset appeared to contravene Charity Commission guidelines.

That was when the school took the step of instructing Savills to put the entire estate up for sale, the one exception being St Petroc's Church.

But questions have arisen over the true ownership of the land, forcing Marlborough to halt the sale.

In an Commons motion tabled by Dan Rogerson, MP for North Cornwall, MPs welcomed the decision by Marlborough College to cease marketing Trevalga.

It added that "many homes offered for sale in coastal communities in North Cornwall are purchased as second homes and that such a process would have a devastating effect on this balanced, happy and peaceful community".

It called for the college to "rule out any future attempt at a sale while working with the residents of the parish to meet their aspirations for a sustainable future and the college's educational objectives as set out in the will left by Mr Curgenven".