From the http://www.kentonline.co.uk By Gazette reporter, 12 August 2016.

Former Share and Coulter pub becomes ‘fly-tippers’ paradise.’

Concerned council officials are in talks with land owners after a former pub on the outskirts of Herne Bay became a “fly-tippers’ paradise”.

Mounds of rubbish have been left outside the abandoned "Share and Coulter" pub in Owls Hatch Road, including bricks, rubble and even an abandoned van.

Anxious residents fear the building, which was sold by Shepherd Neame last October, could be set alight if it is not blocked off.

The pub was sold licensed last year.

Beltinge resident Matt Lawrence, 36, said: “I drive past the old Share and Coulter most days to work and I have noticed that fly-tipping has become progressively worse over the last few months.

"The pub itself appears to have been broken into and is completely open.

“I fear it will not be long before someone sets light to it. The building should be made secure with steel shutters and the car park cleared and blocked off.”

Mr Lawrence, an engineer surveyor, said the area around the former pub has become a “fly-tippers’ paradise”.

Rubbish at the former Share and Coulter pub.

He added: "I have also noticed children in the vicinity and with an open exposed site like this with broken glass and rubble everywhere, it will not be long before someone gets hurt unless the site is secured.

"The whole area from the car park entrance to further along the road towards Bullockstone Road has become a fly-tippers’ paradise."

"The pub itself appears to have been broken into and is completely open..." - Matt Lawrence.

City council spokesman Celia Glynn-Williams said the authority was aware of the issue.

She said: “We are aware of the fly-tipping at this location and met the owners of the land on site last week to discuss the removal of it.

“It will not be straightforward given the volume and type of rubbish there, but we are working with the landowners to try and get the matter resolved.”

Shepherd Neame spokesman Kat Tye added that the pub was sold licensed last year. She said: “After careful consideration we decided to sell the pub, and the sale was completed in October 2015.

"We are unable to comment on the new owner’s plans for the site.”

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Gazette reporter,  24 March 2017.

Travellers move onto former Share and Coulter pub in Greenhill.

Council bosses have told travellers to move on after they set up camp around an abandoned pub near Herne Bay.

About 10 caravans and motorhomes moved onto the former Share and Coulter site in Greenhill last night.

The pub, which was sold by Shepherd Neame in October 2015, is a fly-tipping hotspot.

Last month, Canterbury City Council spent thousands of pounds clearing mounds of rubbish, bricks and rubble.

They installed blockades to stop people fly-tipping, but they appear to have been removed.

Now leaders at the authority have told the travellers to leave immediately.

"Officers from the council and police visited the Share and Coulter site earlier today," council spokesman Leo Whitlock said.

"They reminded those who are camped on the land that it is subject to an injunction and they must leave immediately to avoid legal action.

"We were given a commitment they would be moving on in the next couple of hours and we will be closely monitoring the situation.

"The council has spent considerable amounts of council taxpayers' money cleaning up this site and we hope it will be left in suitable condition."

Artie Lockhart is the owner of neighbouring Prospect Farm.

"I heard a bit of a kerfuffle there last night and obviously all these caravans turned up overnight," he said.

"They are not allowed to be there and there are signs from Canterbury City Council warning against anyone going onto the site.

"And yet if I tried to move so much as a wheelbarrow down there, they'd be on to me. The police really should be down here right now sorting this out."

Police spokesman Steve Knight said: "We were made aware of the presence of travellers on land off Owls Hatch Road, Herne Bay, this morning.

"No criminal offences have been reported and the landowner is aware."

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Jack Dyson, 2 April 2018.

Share and Coulter pub in Owls Hatch Road, Herne Bay, subject of 'hundreds' of complaints.

Mystery continues to surround the future of a derelict pub as a councillor revealed he had been “overwhelmed” with complaints about it.

The Share and Coulter in Owls Hatch Road has remained empty since it was snapped up by an unknown bidder for £265,000 at an auction in September 2015.

Since then, it has been targeted by fly-tippers and thieves and the city council has spent thousands of pounds removing rubbish dumped outside.

Share and Coulter pub. Picture: Andy Jones.

Last month scaffolding was erected and sheets were draped over the former pub's roof in order to prevent leaks and to ready the listed building for work.

Rickie Hamilton, the director of AL Scaffolding, said: “I believe work’s being done on the timber joists at the moment and then it’ll be re-roofed.

“All of the ceiling, plasterboards and cosmetics inside are damaged, but, in terms of the infrastructure, it’s all pretty solid.

“I think the owner’s main concern is covering the roof and making it all watertight – it’d be silly to do anything but clear up inside beforehand because it’d just get damaged.”

Share and Coulter, Owls Hatch Road, Herne Bay. Picture: Gary Browne.

Mr Hamilton, 35, added that “a few of the tiles were stolen” from the roof and that the building may have been broken into because shutters have been placed on windows across the property.

He understands that the owner originally intended to convert the Share and Coulter into a nursing home but is now contemplating moving his family into it.

“I don’t think he really knows what to do with it,” Mr Hamilton continued.

“I think he saw the land, its potential and the price but hadn’t really planned what he’d do with it all.”

Greenhill Cllr David Hirst (Ind) says he has been inundated with “hundreds” of complaints at his ward surgeries from people wanting the Share and Coulter to be “returned to a respectable condition”.

“I think it's going to sit like that for a long, long time unless the council takes some enforcement action, and it doesn't like going down that avenue,” he said.

“It is quite a good site for an old people's home so perhaps the owner will come back to that idea.”

Before it was sold by Shepherd Neame in September 2015, the pub was being run by Trevor and Claire Robinson.

Former landlord Trevor Robinson. Picture: Gary Browne.

They tried to work with the new owner to reopen it and continued to live in it, but had trouble with flooding and a subsequent rat infestation.

Mr Robinson returned to the pub in April 2016, five months after moving out, to salvage some of his possessions and was “absolutely horrified” with how it looked.

“You can stand on the ground floor and look all the way up to the roof rafters,” he said.

“The ceiling had gone, the floors had all been ripped up, and every bit of copper and stainless steel had gone from the building.”

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Max Chesson, 27 May 2023.

How the derelict Share and Coulter pub near Herne Bay became one of Kent’s biggest eyesores.

Every day, thousands of people drive past a once-popular pub that has become one of Kent’s biggest eyesores. So what is being done to address this derelict blot on the landscape?

Here, reporter Max Chesson speaks to former landlords and local historians as he searches for answers...

Tucked away in Owls Hatch Road, Herne Bay, is the once-loved pub. Picture: Barry Goodwin.

As recently as 2015, the Share and Coulter was a family-friendly pub where the taps flowed, the punters laughed and memories were made.

Located in Owls Hatch Road, West Bay – a matter of minutes from Herne Bay – it was once a “very fashionable place to go”, boasting an open log fire.

But today an air of melancholy surrounds the now abandoned boozer, which can be seen from the busy New Thanet Way.

At the site itself, you are greeted by the gentle hum of the electrical substation across the road and the symphonic twittering of the birds above.

Some of the security boards blocking windows and doors have been torn down, while others rattle in the wind.

Some of the security doors have been torn down by vandals. Picture: Barry Goodwin.

Most of the roof tiles are gone - with the grisly, bare bones of the structure revealed for all to gawk at.

Aspiring graffiti artists have left colourful homages to their own talents and pink bushes have begun to sprout, adding a touch of delicacy to the brutish building.

It’s a level of decay you would expect after decades of neglect.

Yet just eight years ago the Share and Coulter was still selling pints. Sold at auction in September that year for £265,000 by previous owners Lucky Five Star, the pub has experienced a shockingly swift fall into rack and ruin.

In less than two years, what was once the heart of the community had transformed into a makeshift tip and occasional travellers camp.

The Share and Coulter Sunday League football team in 2005.

But it wasn’t always like this. Locals of a certain age will remember the pub as being a hive of activity - it was the place to be.

Even up until 2014, it had its own football team - a long-running one at that - which boasted multiple successes in the local Sunday League.

So how does a charming country pub become one of Kent’s biggest eyesores in less than 10 years?

Trevor and Claire Robinson were the last landlords - with their time managing the pub ending after issues with rats and mould forced them to jump ship.

Mr Robinson told KentOnline: “I gave the new owner plenty of warning that if I moved out, someone would need to move back in quickly or it’ll become very derelict.

“And I was proven right - within a week of me moving my last vehicle things began to kick off.

“Within four days of the auction there was a huge downpour and the pub flooded with sewage, leading to a massive infestation of rats.

“The whole place was going mouldy. You could see it on the carpets, and nobody was willing to spend any money on it.

“It would have needed gutting. It was a horrible situation and downfall but a lot of it comes down to bad timing.”

Having once planned to buy it for about £180,000 before the price spiralled at auction, the Robinson family continued to live in the pub until December 2015 while they got their affairs in order.

The tiles have long been stripped from the roof of the Share and Coulter. Picture: Barry Goodwin.

By Mr Robinson’s own admission, the pub generally broke even but brought in very little profit.

“There were so many obstacles to overcome for the Share and Coulter,” the dad-of-two said.

“There was so much going against it - location, tough winters, the New Thanet Way, flooding.

“The new owner initially wanted me to take it on as a business. I said wait until it’s purchased and completed and we could talk.

“After a few months of dealing with the aftermath of the flood I just had to give up. We stayed for a while as a favour to the new owner but it got to be too much.

“If it had sold in the summer, it could have had someone running it by the time it flooded and it would have been insured as well as more motivation to bolster it.”

The land the pub sits on was once known as the Church Estate - owned by the Church and rented out to provide income for the poorer people of the parish.

There is evidence of a boozer on Owls Hatch Road as far back as 1841, when the landlord was James Harris, according to census data. (I have only seen James Harris as licensee of this pub as early as 1871 age 74, but could have been here in 1841. Paul Skelton. If so I say it's the same pub.)

It was only in the 1930s that the pub began to offer wines and spirits - having exclusively sold beer for almost 100 years before that.

Sylvia McKean, of the Herne and Broomfield Local History Group, recalls the glory days of the Share and Coulter.

Inside the Share and Coulter in 2010.

“In the 1990s I personally visited the pub quite often where I enjoyed a friendly welcome, good food and especially in the winter months, relaxing in front of a large cosy open log fire,” Ms McKean said.

“In the 60s and 70s the pub was a very fashionable place to go, especially on a Saturday evening when it was packed with customers.

“The beginning of the demise would be in the late 1990s. In 1997 publicans Steve and Sheila Clark were forced to leave because of the disruption of trade caused by the work on the construction of the New Thanet Way.

“When the New Thanet Way opened, unless you knew the area well, approach roads to the Share and Coulter were not so obviously direct, so the pub was often overlooked by passing traffic.”

After the Clarks departed, the bar received a £200,000 facelift in the summer of 1999 and re-opened in the autumn.

But after last orders were called in 2015, being in such an isolated area it quickly became a “fly-tipper’s paradise”.

Fly-tipping at the Share and Coulter in 2017.

Within months of closing, KentOnline reported that travellers had made their way onto the land and set up camp.

Canterbury City Council had to intervene on multiple occasions to help clear the site.

The cost of cleaning up the private land was believed to be in the region of £50,000.

Back in 2018, the then-Greenhill councillor David Hirst said there had been “hundreds” of complaints from disgruntled residents who wanted to see the site return to its former glory.

One vandal asks ‘What’s actually happening?’ – a very good question.

His successor Dan Watkins says he hasn’t experienced quite the same clamour.

“When I hear about it, it’s about something undesirable happening - usually fly-tipping,” the Tory councillor said.

“It doesn’t look great as it slowly degrades and my concern is that the owners are slowly letting it rot.

“Eventually, if it’s not tended to, it could collapse in parts and lose its listed status which would make it easier to develop the site.”

With the building being Grade II-listed as a result of its age, any plans to convert it into anything other than a pub could prove tricky.

Vandals have long made use of the derelict site to fly-tip. Picture: Barry Goodwin.

While the council has invested money into clearing the area before, the authority ultimately has no power to save the Share and Coulter.

Cllr Watkins said: “It would be nice to see someone experiment with it as a pub but it’s a tough site - it’s been somewhat cut off from the town of Herne Bay.

“It’s not that attractive a site. It’s inaccessible and it’s loud and it’s ultimately not obvious what it could be that could benefit the community.

“There’s rumours about what the owners want to do with it but there’s been no planning applications to my knowledge.”

So if this is the past and the present, what is the future?

The once golden letters of the sign have been partially discarded. Picture: Barry Goodwin.

No planning applications relating to Share and Coulter have been submitted since 2006, when bosses at the pub wanted to get permission to keep the football pitch to the back of the grounds.

Rumours have consistently offered up suggestions of a care home or a family home but nothing concrete has ever been suggested.

KentOnline contacted the owner, who is also understood to own the former Kind Hearts charity shop in Sea Street, Herne Bay, but he declined to comment.