It has been a pub for 200 years, it is said to be haunted by a ghost called William and at one point it was going to be turned into a mini-supermarket.

But now, as the Echo revealed, last orders have finally been called for the Barge Inn in Vange as the former boozer has got the green light to be turned into a religious centre – after years of endless debate over the controversial plans.

The South Essex Islamic Trust has got the go-ahead to convert the pub, in High Road, into “a place of worship and a community centre”.

Plans were previously refused and then withdrawn with concerns about parking and noise on the site but altered plans to address the problems have now been rubber stamped by Basildon Council.

The Barge has been empty since about 2013 when the business closed.

It has a fascinating history. During its lengthy existence – at times justice was served at the pub as well as pints .

The watering hole was once the venue for civil court proceedings and coroner’s inquests. This was not uncommon during the 18th and 19th centuries, when towns and villages were lacking in space and buildings capable of holding important ceremonies and meetings. Often, the local pub was the only large, indoor space where public events could take place.

Normally, these formal gatherings would take place upstairs in the pub or in the back room, away from the punters swigging their beer and smoking their pipes.

At the Barge, many an inquest was held, presided over by the coroner for Essex, Mr Charles Edgar Lewis. Records show dead bodies were also taken to the pub to await an official inquest.

This was the case in April 1903 after William Parker, a bootmaker from Pitsea, died suddenly by the roadside. Records show: ‘PC Gates took the body to the Barge Inn to await an inquest’.

In December 1896 the death of a worker at Pitsea Dynamite Factory led to an inquest being held at the pub which attracted great interest from the community.

James Jiggens, a labourer from Pitsea was only 28 when he died from the effects of inhaling nitric acid fumes.

A jury was assembled at the Barge Inn which returned a verdict of accidental death. The jury members made a point of requesting that the widow and young child of Mr Jiggens should be taken care of financially by bosses of the factory.

In a time when neighbours genuinely looked out for one another, the local community also held a collection to pay for the funeral expenses.

A pub of some sort has existed at the corner of High Road and Clayhill Road in some form or another since 1840.

Before the Barge, it is said a pub at the site was named ‘The Man with Seven Wives’. It is thought the building was a domestic home for 200 years before being used as a pub.

In more recent decades the pub was run by Geraldine Evans. In 2007 she left the pub after working behind the bar for more than 40 years

Her aunt, Elizabeth, was the first member of her family to take on the pub, in 1937, and her parents Ted and Angela took it over after the Second World War in 1945.

Geraldine said: “This pub obviously means a lot to me and my family. I’ve still got a customer, Jim, who was in the bar the day I was born. I’ve worked here all my life and have raised my own family here, but I think it now needs a younger person.”

She added how the pub is said to be haunted by a man named ‘William’ and some think it is the ghost of William Benton, one of the early owners of the pub. The only information we can find about such a man was in 1827 when a William Benton from Vange, a wharfinger, (a keeper of a wharf) was made bankrupt.

In 2015 rumours began circulating that the pub was to be turned into a mini-Morrisons but those plans seemed to disappear into the ether.

Now it appears the venue is finally set for a different path where there certainly won’t be a pint in sight.