Renovated Spalding pub for sale as stunning home

An historic Spalding pub is being sold as a stunning five bedroom family home following a painstaking seven-year renovation project.

The Welland Inn, in London Road, thought to date to the 1750s, was bought in 2009 by electrical contractor Peter Harper who initially intended to do a quick year-long renovation. In the end it took that long just to secure planning permission.

Peter (51) and partner Judy Woodward (48) initially lived in a touring caravan on site battling winters so cold they had to defrost water on a fire. After three years they moved into an annex created in the former toilet block and it took to 2017 to finish the project.

Judy, an operations technician at Spalding Power Station, said: "I think if it was up to Peter, he would have sold it fairly quickly but I put my foot down - I spent seven years mixing cement!

"I love the house. There are so many little details built into it."

One of those details is in the use of some air dried bricks found at the site, some of which had animal paw prints in them, to create a pillar in the living room. The couple set those bricks at the eyeline height of a child.

Wood from original joists that couldn't be reused for that purpose was made into a coffee table. The living room floor, retained from the pub, carries hints of stiletto marks.

Judy said: "Bits like that are what I adore. It's an old house but doesn't creak and groan. There aren't drafts. It's very energy efficient and a lovely house to live in.

"Peter is a real perfectionist and if he is going to do something it has to be done properly and if not it is done again.

"When he bought it friends said he ought to make it into flats but it is too lovely a building to not do what is right for it."

The Welland Inn is thought to have been in business for more than 150 years. According to the book 'More Aspects of Spalding,' by Michael Elsden, it was listed as Welland Cottage in the 1840s. In the early 1900s it was classified as an inn and before that was likely a beer house with no licence to sell wines and spirits.

Peter, an electrical engineer, bought the derelict pub, which had attracted squatters, for £85,000. It is being marketed by Fine & Country for £700,000.

The old cellar is now fitted out to be a music or cinema room.

Peter taught himself how to do everything to renovate the building from drainage to plastering. The Welsh slate roof was taken off one slate at a time to be cleaned and refurbished and then replaced. That process alone took four to five months.

He said: "At times you're putting in 16 hour days, getting showered and something to eat, then you're looking at materials, drawings, checking measurements and suddenly it's early hours of the morning. It was probably a stupid project to do. If I had a job it would have taken a lifetime."

For the duration of the project Judy worked a week on, week off at Bacton Gas Terminal and helped when not at work. Peter, originally from Sunderland, worked on the house full time. He has long had links to Spalding and moved to the town just before he bought the property.

The couple now plan to move somewhere smaller - but may consider taking on another project or building from scratch.