Surrey Homes | SH20 | June 2016 | Kitchen & Bathroom supplement inside

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Above left: The spacious kitchen, which was once the pub kitchen, has been completely stripped out and refitted with a chic, grey Howdens kitchen and a
distressed, marble-topped table Above right: Glass doors between the hall and drawing room allow natural light to flood between the rooms at all times of day
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With such a variety of past lives, it seemed
incomprehensible that this now elegant abode was not at
least mildly schizophrenic. But, in truth, I’ve encountered
more emotionally disturbed oasts. After all it had been
through, it was calm, cool, collected and gave every sign of
enjoying its latest incarnation. The encounter just served
to demonstrate once again how adaptable and forgiving of
outrageous fortune – and of us – our architecture can be.
Which brings us to Ingram House. This handsome
listed Georgian farmhouse probably began life as
something altogether different, perhaps a humbler
farmhouse, perhaps farm-workers’ cottages. If it did,
one day someone cheerfully wiped them off the face of
the earth. In their place, they built the present pleasing
structure. Perched on top of a hill near Hurst Green, it
was blessed with views to die for and its days as a smart
new rural home must have been close to idyllic.
But then one day, life suddenly changed and the
rooms that once rang with the laughter of children
became a favourite haunt of one of the most violent
criminal gangs in the south of England. Without so
much as a by-your-leave the farmhouse became a pub,
the White Horse, and a watering hole of the infamous
smugglers, the Hawkhurst Gang. However, the Gang
ultimately met their end in a gun battle with the local
militia around Goudhurst church and the White Horse
gently slipped into the role of sleepy rural pub, a role it
would play well for the next two and a half centuries.
Their use of a single neutral wall colour throughout– Little Greene’s ‘Mortar’ – has enhanced
the overall impression of light and space and provides a versatile canvas allowing them to go
to town with imaginative furniture, furnishings and art
www.wealdentimes.co.uk
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