A CENTURY old building has been reduced to a burnt-out shell in a mystery blaze which changed the Kent coast skyline.

Fire crews from Canterbury, Ramsgate, Sandwich and Eastry were called to the three-storey former golf clubhouse in Sandwich Bay on Tuesday morning.

The derelict building was the seafront clubhouse for Prince's Golf Club untl 1985 when the club opened a purpose-built headquarters further north in the bay. It has been empty ever since.

Bill Howie, director of Prince's, said: "I have been out to the old clubhouse and it was a sad sight. The roof has completely and utterly gone and the Sandwich Bay skyline has been altered."

Since it has been empty there have been a variety of plans for its future and it was hoped it could become a hotel. Mr Howie said the old clubhouse, that opened in 1906, was steeped in golfing history in its heyday.