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Thanet Times, Tuesday 21 March 1978. By Patricia Brookes.
My home was once a Public House.
RETIRED director of building development for the Hong Kong Government.
Mr. Peter Shawe, found his talents invaluable when he and his wife,
Norah, bought a dilapidated public house at Reading Street, near
Tenterden to convert into a home.
It was while they went home on leave in the summer of 1970 that they
decided to look around for a house to live in when Mr. Shawe retired.
After looking at a number which had either just been sold or were not
suitable, they were given the particulars of the old "White Hart and
Lamb," and decided to buy it.
The pub closed about two or three years previously, and was in a bad
state of repair.
All the fittings, including the old beer pump handles, had been removed,
but Mr. Shawe is now looking around for one to install in his own bar,
which has been made out of the former public bar. The old snuggery has
been transformed into an attractive kitchen.
Mr. and Mrs. Shawe have carried out nearly all the conversion work
themselves, apart from the specialised work of installing central
heating and re-wiring.
Those who can recall the days when the house was a pub will have
difficulty today in recognising it. Mr. Shawe's work, which has taken
him two years to complete, has been painstakingly thought out.
The former saloon bar has been turned into a dining room and the old
fireplace has been ripped out and replaced, by Mr. Shawe, with an
old-style one made of bricks from a wall which has been removed.
New floors.
The sitting room, which has had large French doors put in the outside
wall was once the pantry and scullery, complete with a copper. Mr. and
Mrs. Shawe had to lay new floors, as the two rooms were on different
levels with steps leading to each.
The house is thought to be about 100 yeas old, but Mr. Shawe says he has
been told by local people that there has been a public house on the site
for at least 300 years.
This is borne out by the fact that outside are a number of old
flagstones which Mr. Shawe thinks are the foundations or courtyard of a
much older pub.
The house, which is now called the Old Inn, stands in about an acre of
ground, complete, with a pond and a couple of tame ducks. In the grounds
stands an attractive barn which is thought to be about 200 years old,
and which was once used as a stable, probably to house horses while
their owners were slaking their thirsts in the pub. When Mr. Shawe
bought the house the barn was also very neglected, and he has spent many
hours renovating it.
Old timbers.
Inside the barn are a fine collection of timbers, including those from
old ships. When Mr. and Mrs. Shawe's daughter was married last year, the
barn was used for the reception, and he hopes in the future to convert
it into a music room where he can sit and play his electric organ.
There is also a well in the garden and the lawns, which were once
feet-high grass and nettles, slope away to the the nearby fields and
marshes dotted with sheep.
Mr and Mrs. Shawe have unspoilt views over the surrounding countryside,
and their garden, which has been transformed from a complete wilderness,
is quite a sun trap in the summer.
Mr. Shawe said that it was a challenge to take over the old pub, which
had fallen into disrepair, but he now believed that it was a very
attractive house in a beautiful spot.
Mr. and Mrs. Shawe in the sitting room of their converted public house.
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