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Long white thatched inn on the far bank of the Great Ouse, reflected in still waterPhoto: John Sutton · licence
  • Whitewashed inn with a deep thatched roof, black timbers and white chimneys, seen across a lawn

Photo: Richard Humphrey · licence

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The Old Ferry Boat Inn

Back Lane, Holywell, St Ives, Cambridgeshire PE27 4TG

Grade C · TraditionTrading · checked Sept 2026

The Old Ferry Boat Inn claims AD 560. The records say 1841.

Claimed
AD 560
First record
1841
Building
no single date

The building. 17th century with an earlier cross-wing (Historic England); much restored. The Royal Commission's Huntingdonshire inventory reads the cross-wing as late 16th or early 17th century and the rest of the house as an early-18th-century rebuild, so the two surveys agree about the wing and disagree about the main range.

Pub website Directions
  • Thatched
  • Riverside
  • Haunted
  • Real ale
  • Food
  • Rooms

How old is it, really?

How to read this ribbon
Claims AD 560; first recorded 1841.

Hatched: 1281 years the pub claims but no document confirms. Solid: 185 years on record.

The claim

A thatched, low-beamed inn on the banks of the Great Ouse, the Old Ferry Boat marks a river crossing used for centuries. Its claim to date from AD 560 is pure tradition, but the setting is timeless: riverside lawns, a handful of bedrooms and a resident legend in the ghost of Juliet Tewsley, said to walk on the anniversary of her death.

What the records show

The AD 560 date is tradition only; no early documentary source has been published. The listed building is 17th-century with an older cross-wing, and a continuous run of named innkeepers is recorded only from 1841.

Dated evidence for The Old Ferry Boat Inn, earliest first
YearWhatSource
AD 560Claimed foundingThe pub
1841First record of a drinking house hereBritish History Online

What to look for inside

  • Claims to be England's oldest inn (AD 560)
  • Said to be haunted by Juliet Tewsley
  • A ferry operated here into the 1930s
  • Designated an Asset of Community Value

Visiting

The Old Ferry Boat Inn is in Holywell, England, at Back Lane, Holywell, St Ives, Cambridgeshire PE27 4TG. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

greenekinginns.co.uk Directions in your maps app

Sources

  1. camra.org.uk/pubs/ferry-boat-holywell-142984
  2. capturingcambridge.org/huntingdonshire/holywell-cum-needingworth/old-ferry-boat-inn-holywell/
  3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Ferry_Boat_Inn
  4. www.greenekinginns.co.uk/hotels/cambridgeshire/old-ferry-boat
  5. www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/hunts/pp140-142
  6. www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hunts/vol2/pp175-178
  7. ratings.food.gov.uk/business/341252

Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026

Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Checked by OldPubs: The Old Ferry Boat Inn claims AD 560

Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.

How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.

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