Historic England archaeologist names George Inn as England's oldest pub
Dr James Wright, a buildings archaeologist working for Historic England, has named the George Inn in Norton St Philip, Somerset, as the oldest pub in England. He also said none of the more than two dozen pubs that claim the title is accurate, according to The Guardian.
The George Inn, Wright said, has been in continuous use as an inn since around 1430 to 1432. It was set up in the 14th century by the monks of Hinton Priory. Historic England has said the monks were Carthusian monks and that the inn was originally built in the late 14th century, in a post on its Facebook page.
Wright's approach was to check each claim against physical evidence. A pub had to have been built for use as a public house, to have stayed in service without a break, and to show archaeological, archival or tree-ring evidence of significant original building material. Tree-ring dating, known as dendrochronology, estimates when a wooden beam was felled by matching its pattern of growth rings against reference records. Wright said it is difficult to verify whether any pubs were built and used as inns or ale houses, and kept in continuous use, before the 1400s.
Several other pubs make older claims. Ye Olde Fighting Cocks in St Albans says it was established around AD800. The date first appeared on a postcard in 1926, and the building began as a monastic dovecote, a structure for housing pigeons, built around 1400. The earliest point at which it can be confirmed as operating as a public house is the first decade of the 19th century.
The Bingley Arms in Bardsey claims to date back more than 1,000 years, to when Vikings were conquering parts of the country. The Royal Standard in Beaconsfield claims it was frequented by King Alfred the Great's West Saxons in around AD880. The Domesday Book, a national survey of English land, mentions no pubs.
Historic England has said that dates painted on pub signs can be inaccurate, and that imagination fills the gaps where evidence is missing.
