Live in the Pub

The Mirror UK: Live in the pub - Rufus's mom Jo talks about their pub. It is for sale.

Laugharne’s most famous resident was poet Dylan Thomas and his parents were tenants of The Pelican from 1949 to 1953. Thomas is said to have written one of his most well-known poems, Do Not Go Gentle, there in 1951 in response to his father’s illness. His father’s funeral was held at The Pelican. And only a year later, his own wake was held at the same pub.

When Jo Sewell first looked at the property in 1980, she felt an overwhelming affinity with it. “I walked into the kitchen and immediately felt that I had to live here,” she recalls. “I’d been recently widowed. My husband (the Australian animator Bill Sewell, who worked on The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine) had hero-worshipped Dylan Thomas, and I felt drawn to this place because of its history. I bought The Pelican with my heart and didn’t really consider how much work needed doing to it!”

Over the years Jo has painstakingly restored the four-storey property and converted the adjoining stables into a five-room cottage. “I tried to put back a lot of the character, such as the fireplaces,” she says. “It still has the trapdoor into the cellar where they used to throw down the beer barrels.”

The Pelican has also enjoyed its own fame having been featured in many films about the life of Thomas.

And the artistic legacy of the pub has obviously rubbed off on Jo’s two sons who went on to find worldwide success – Caspar as a musician and Rufus as an actor who is renowned for his period roles in dramas such as Middlemarch and Charles II.

“It’s a fantastic house in a beautiful setting,” says Jo. “Now it’s far too big for me to maintain. It has been a magical home and I hope its artistic legacy will continue to inspire others.”

The Pelican is being sold by Terry Thomas Estates on 01267 235330. Offers invited around £399,500.