The claim
Stone flags, low beams and an inglenook under a queen-post roof, in a timber-framed house beside Horley's parish church. CAMRA dates it to 1403 and calls its claim to be one of Britain's oldest a valid one; Historic England, which lists it Grade II, puts the building in the early sixteenth century. The barn ten yards north is listed as well, and holds the cellar.
What the records show
The house itself claims nothing. Its operator's page was read in a browser on 11 September 2026 and carries no date, no century and no age claim in three and a half thousand characters, so the year on this page is CAMRA's: its entry, surveyed on 17 February 2026 and updated on 3 March 2026, opens by dating the pub to 1403 and saying it has valid claims to be one of Britain's oldest. Historic England disagrees, and CAMRA prints the disagreement itself: list entry 1378034, Grade II since 11 November 1966, dates the building to the early sixteenth century, and CAMRA's own note says most of the building is sixteenth-century. A century is a long way from 1403, nothing traced records drink sold here at any medieval date, and that is why the claim is graded as tradition rather than on the fabric. Two other dates attach themselves to the house and neither is a founding date. CAMRA reports that it stands on wooden piles some of which are said to date from 827, which is a story about timber under the floor rather than about a drinking house, and told as a story by the people who print it. And the thirteenth century, under which this house sat in our own research list for six weeks, belongs to nobody at all: no publisher states it, so it is not on this page. What is solid is the building and the trade. The barn ten yards north is separately listed, entry 1028983 since 26 April 1984, and now holds the cellar; the upper roof is carried on a queen post that CAMRA says is shared with only one other pub in England; and the rooms keep stone flags, low beams and an inglenook. Cask ale is served — Sharp's Doom Bar and a changing beer, with Cask Marque scoring the cellar four out of five — so a drink without a meal is not in question. Trading rests on CAMRA's survey of 17 February 2026 and on the Food Standards Agency, which inspected the kitchen on 16 April 2025 and rated it five. What would move the grade is a first record of drink: the Surrey History Centre's licensing and quarter sessions records, which are not published online.
What to look for inside
- The listed barn ten yards north now holds the pub's cellar
- Queen-post roof over the upper floor, which CAMRA says is shared with one other English pub
- Stone flags, low beams and an inglenook fireplace
Visiting
Ye Olde Six Bells is in Horley, England, at Church Road, Horley RH6 8AD. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- camra.org.uk/pubs/olde-six-bells-horley-191166
- historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1378034
- historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1028983
- api.ratings.food.gov.uk/Establishments/32217
- www.vintageinn.co.uk/restaurants/south-east/yeoldesixbellshorley
- www.openstreetmap.org/node/443271270
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Oct 2026
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