A Hampshire brewery has announced plans to re-open the White Hart in Overton early next year – and it has promised to restore the pub to its “former glory” as the village’s old coaching inn.

Providing planning permission is granted, Upham Brewery plans to restore the building’s historic wooden features, redesign the upstairs area into bedrooms, and fit a new kitchen in order to serve a wide variety of food.

Upham Brewery chief executive Chris Phillips, who is heavily involved in the design, said: “This is a very exciting project for us.

“We are hoping to bring this building back to its former glory. For example, there are some wonderful wooden floorboards in there which we want to put back to how they originally looked.

“What we are really hoping is that when people walk in, they will think that it’s been like this for 100 years. It really will be absolutely fabulous.

“We are just as excited to be joining the community of Overton and getting involved in what’s going on in the village.”

The pub, which sits at the heart of Overton village, in London Road, was closed down last year by previous owners the Wellington Pub Company who claimed it was unprofitable.

Upham has recently exchanged the freehold contracts with Wellington, and builders are due to start the renovations, which they hope will begin in the next few weeks.

Although there is no official opening date yet, Mr Phillips is hoping that the pub will be pouring the pints as early as “the beginning of April 2015”.

For more information on Upham, and their progress at the White Hart, visit their website uphambrewery.co.uk