Time called for Gorleston pub

SINCE the mid-19th century, the White Horse pub has stood at the top of the busy Beccles Road roundabout, providing a prominent landmark for motorists travelling into Gorleston.

SINCE the mid-19th century, the White Horse pub has stood at the top of the busy Beccles Road roundabout, providing a prominent landmark for motorists travelling into Gorleston.

But now the pub could be re-developed as homes, potentially providing a boost to the long list of first time buyers looking to get on the housing ladder.

Building firm HBC Enterprises has bought the site and is set to submit a planning application to Great Yarmouth Borough Council early next week to build town houses and flats on the site close to the busy Beccles Road roundabout.

A spokesman for the firm said the company hoped to build affordable housing, including eight three-bedroom and two two-bedroom town houses, which would be sold for between �125,000 and �149,000.

The eight three-bedroom town houses would be built in a row behind the existing pub building facing onto Church Road, while the two two-bedroom town houses would be behind them. The pub itself would be demolished and replaced with nine flats.

The White Horse closed in July last year when landlady Jacqueline Ellis quit after the number of customers dwindled due to the effects of the recession and the smoking ban.

Pub company Enterprise Inns, which owned the White Horse, subsequently put the property on the market.

The spokesman added the firm decided to re-develop the land because it did not believe there was a market for the pub in an area saturated with boozers including the Wheelwrights Arms a few doors away in Beccles Road and the Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Road West.

He said anyone buying one of the properties from HBC Enterprises could take out a mortgage with his firm, which offered a better rate of interest than the High Street banks.

Caister historian Colin Tooke believed the pub, which is not listed, dated back to the mid-19th century as it was previously owned by 19th century Gorleston brewer Bell's before being sold on to another brewery Steward and Patteson.

At that time, the pub was on the main coach route between Great Yarmouth and London and may have been a stop-off for travellers visiting the town.

Before the White Horse was built, a house stood there which was home to political leader Oliver Cromwell's granddaughter Bridget Ireton.

Rod Esherwood, secretary of the Licensed Victuallers Association in Yarmouth, said he was sad to see the pub go.

He added: “It is disappointing, but it is just a sign of the times.”