From an email received, 25 January, 2017.

My parents, much older brother and sister moved into 361, Dover Road, Walmer in mid 1955 from a house just a short distance away, also on the Dover Road. The move was to a slightly bigger house with the benefit of a larger garden and an allotment behind the house which was accessed from Belmont.

I was born in December 1955 at 361 in the top left hand bedroom, adjacent to what was the "Hare and Hounds" in your photographs.

The old pub, 363 Dover Road, was occupied by a grand lady, Mrs Murray, who was a fanatical scrabble player!

I was always told that in the earlier years 363 and 361 were all part of the pub premises; an inter connecting wooden door with latch handle and large bolts on both sides was located in the lounge of 363 and dining room of 361. I believe the premises were at this point owned by the Charrington brewery which was situated a short walk up Dover Road just passed Hawksdown and at which my father had just been employed in the hop rooms. It was through this job that he had secured the rental of 361.

It was always said that 361 had been, in part, the living quarters for the landlord although directly below 361 there was a large cellar, at least large to a small boy! that my father always told me would have been the beer cellar. A wooden entrance door to the cellar was located in the front garden of 361, to the right of the front door as you look at it, and just inside the front door of the house, which directly accessed the lounge, you would find a trap door to the cellar under a mat that when opened gave you access via a wooden ladder.

In my years at the house, which we moved from in the late 60's I had many adventures in that cellar.

Directly in front of the cellar flap in the small front garden a large hole had been discovered some years earlier that was covered with a metal pub sign. For safety reasons this was in-filled with concrete and my mother told me that it was suspected as a smugglers tunnel to the pubs quarters from the nearby beaches and that it took a massive amount to fill it.

The house itself was small and comprised two bedrooms with a wide connecting landing which doubled up as my sisters bedroom, her bed being shielded from the walkway by a thin curtain.

Downstairs comprised two rooms at the front and a kitchen and scullery at the rear which in the late 50's was modernised to provide a bathroom off of the kitchen. This also replaced a toilet at the top of the garden which in turn became the location for the shed. No more tin baths before the open fire!

In the early 60's, my brother being in his late teens, woke my parents one night in a terrible state saying he had just seen a woman standing at the bottom of his bed. She was a young woman dressed in what he described as a Dutch girls clothing.

Some weeks before this my parents had been concerned that we had a trapped animal or something in the attic as they heard a number a 'clonks' in the early hours of the mornings on a regular basis. This was mentioned by Dad at the brewery and contractors arrived to cut a small loft hatch into the attic from the landing. They found nothing but a realisation that the number of beams in the attic corresponded to the number of 'clonks' my parents had been hearing.

A short while later my sister also saw this same apparition directly below the hatch.

My mother told me this at a much later time in my life and said that they had the loft hatch sealed completely thereafter and believed the spirit of a girl had been released from the attic.

Whether wives tales, folklore or pure fantasy she had also been told of a young girl bar worker who had been working at the pub and been murdered in the pubs early years and during violent smuggling days. She thought that might account for the clothing description given by my brother also.

Although distinct premises in the 50's it was easy to see how this house had been a part of the "Hare and Hounds." The rear access to the garden was by way of an alley to the gate of the pub, now 363, from Belmont, ours being directly placed to the left of it; the inner connecting door and the fact that 363 for some reason I never understood had two staircases in it, one directly alongside our connecting wall. The barrel flap and cellar were also factors which made me have no doubt.

I had some very enjoyable early years at 361; spent hours in the old brewery with Dad and playing in the brewery field opposite the main building which also comprised the offices and accommodation for a senior manager and his family, Mr Elcock. I was a good friend of his son David. Together we would create havoc in the field and vegetable gardens of the brewery and surely be a constant pain to the resident gardener, Mr Les Friend. This field became the home of Barns Close cricket club for many years in the late 60's and 70's and a caravan park later in life I believe. It backed on to a corn field behind Mayers Road.

Before leaving the house and probably in the early 1960's the sodium light street lamp was erected outside my bedroom window and provided a lovely glow each night at bedtime, turning from light yellow though all colours to final deep orange before sleep struck!

In the early 1980s I was working in the area and found the owners of the old house were renovating it. I knocked on the door and explained my history and was kindly allowed to look around. The decor was very different but nothing could change the shape and character of the house. The wooden 'draft' door to the stairs from the lounge still in place! A large inglenook fire place had been uncovered from behind a plaster board wall that I was unaware was there and I was given a meat hook from the grate of it that had once been embedded in the wall no doubt.

I loved my time in that house and indeed in the old Walmer of the 50's and 60's. A truly great era to have been brought up in.

Peter Townsend.