A Wetherspoon pub closed for the night after a shocked customer was almost hit by chunks of a crumbling cornice that fell from the ceiling.

Jason Moves had been enjoying a pint of Carlsberg before hearing a “hell of thud” as the debris landed on the bar floor in The Samuel Peto in Folkestone, which dates back to 1873.

Like many Wetherspoon branches across the country, it is a historic building that has been converted into a pub by the national chain.

The Grade II-listed venue was closed by bosses as a precaution shortly after the incident at 6.30pm yesterday and it did not reopen until this morning.

Mr Moves told KentOnline it was very fortunate that no one had been directly below the falling material.

He said: “I was sitting on the stool near the fruit machines and I was about to get another pint.

“My wife said, ‘Don't, I want to go in a minute as I'm at work at 7pm’, so I left it.

“Then ‘bang!’ It dropped to the floor, exactly where I would have been standing!

“At first we thought someone had thrown a plate over the balcony.”

The 50-year-old added: “It was a bit of a shock at first.

“It made hell of a thud when it landed.

“I wouldn't have liked to have been under it.

“If that had hit someone on the head, I don't think they would be here now.”

Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon says health and safety is treated with the “utmost importance”.

He said: “A very small amount of a decorative cornice fell from a lighting surround at the Samuel Peto in Folkestone yesterday. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

“The pub was closed as a precaution pending further inspection by an expert.

“The inspection confirmed that there was no damage to the ceiling and no other repairs were required, so the pub opened this morning as usual.

“Wetherspoon treats the health and safety of its staff and customers with the utmost importance and every effort is made to ensure that our pubs are safe places.”

The Rendezvous Street pub is a former Baptist chapel which was funded in 1873 largely by a loan from Sir Samuel Morton Peto.

A Baptist himself, Peto was one of the great railway contractors of the Victorian age, responsible for laying about 750 miles of track in England and more than 2,300 miles globally.

Peto’s company also built Nelson’s Column in London.

He served as Folkestone’s MP for more than 20 years, resigning his seat in 1866, having been declared technically insolvent, although he was owed more than £1 million in unpaid debts.

The building’s interior is ornate and decorative, featuring a large mural of the sky on the ceiling.

Other Kent Wetherspoon pubs have an interesting history, with the buildings formerly being used as opera houses, police stations and car showrooms.