Pubs are fertile ground for tall tales, with many claiming to be the oldest pub in England.What Is the Oldest Pub in England? | 7:58 |
Historic England | 30.9K subscribers | 203,944 views | October 1, 2026
Posted on 10/04/2026 6:19:45 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Pubs are fertile ground for tall tales, with many claiming to be the oldest pub in England.
What Is the Oldest Pub in England? | 7:58 |
Historic England | 30.9K subscribers | 203,944 views | October 1, 2026
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[snip] The dates painted on pub signs can be inaccurate. Some pubs are on old sites, but their structures were rebuilt later. Others were built for a different purpose and were later converted into pubs. Where evidence is absent, the imagination often fills in the gaps.
Public houses evolved gradually over the centuries in England. The traditional pubs that we experience today are mainly a product of the 19th century. Yet lodged within the DNA of the humble pub are the alehouses, taverns, and inns of the medieval period.
Using a combination of written records, observing the fabric of the structure and scientific analysis through tree-ring dating (dendrochronology), building archaeologist Dr James Wright believes that the George Inn in Norton St Philip, Somerset, has the strongest claim to be England's earliest surviving purpose-built inn.
Inns appeared from the late 12th century onwards and some later examples are still trading today. They were often founded by religious or educational institutions to cater for travelling pilgrims, merchants, and elite households.
Their structures were usually built around galleried courtyards and had impressive street frontages intended to impress wealthy patrons. They have the best survival rate from the medieval period and offer the best opportunity to answer the question ‘What is the oldest pub in England?'
The George Inn was originally built in the late 14th century for the Carthusian monks of Hinton Charterhouse to provide accommodation for merchants attending the monastery's markets and fairs.
Many of the inn's structures were added during the 15th century, including the timber frame and roof at the front of the building. This was added using timber felled between 1430 and 1432. [/snip]
YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.
The weekly digest list of topics will show up down below.
I guess this is a thing now that any mention of anything related to Britain on FR requires some posters to divert into immigration and Islam, the Falkland news, British military news, Navy news, energy news, the same.
It was just an attempt at humor my friend.....although it failed miserably.
Everybody thinks they’re a comedian....they aren’t. 😏
You mean politics?
I visited Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem pub near Nottingham, and I think it was started in the 1100’s. It was a stopping place for knights going to The Crusades and the original part is built into a cave.
Putting “Ye Olde” in the name mitigates against authenticity, IMHO. 😁 While it wasn’t a public house, it may have been the brewery for the castle that once housed the local lord quite a long time ago. Regardless, sounds like fun!
https://search.brave.com/search?q=history+of+Ye+Olde+Trip+to+Jerusalem+pub
I went to “The Bear” in Oxford, which has been occupied since 1241 and has been an Inn/Tavern since at least 1432
My impressions - still very popular among the locals (as well as tourists) and its low ceilings will remind you that people in the Middle Ages were not very tall.
Had a pint to say I was there, but too crowded for dinner.....
That’s about what I was thinking, too….
Sadly.
Thanks for the post.
(SC pretty sure you already know this. Citing Wikipedia since cut and paste is easier than reciting from my memory and also has the necessary special characters.)
(To ALL; Skip to next post if not intrested, or just go to the Wiki article.)
Þ þ
Snip...."The modern digraph th began to grow in popularity during the 14th century; at the same time, the shape of ⟨Þ⟩ grew less distinctive, with the letter losing its ascender (becoming similar in appearance to the old wynn (⟨Ƿ⟩, ⟨ƿ⟩), which had fallen out of use by 1300, and to ancient through modern ⟨P⟩, ⟨p⟩). ...Snip....
By this stage, th was predominant and the use of ⟨Þ⟩ was largely restricted to certain common words and abbreviations. This was the longest-lived use, though with the arrival of movable type printing, the substitution of ⟨y⟩ for ⟨Þ⟩ became ubiquitous, leading to the common "ye", as in 'Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe'....snip The first printing of the King James Version of the Bible in 1611 used ye for "the" in places such as Job 1:9, John 15:1, and Romans 15:29.[7] It also used yt as an abbreviation for "that", in places such as 2 Corinthians 13:7. ....Snip...yͧ – an Early Modern English abbreviation for the word thou. ...snip....
Modern English
"Thorn in the form of a "Y" survives in pseudo-archaic uses, particularly the stock prefix phrase "ye olde". The definite article Þe (The), spelt with "Y" rather than a thorn (as ye), is often jocularly or mistakenly pronounced /jiː/ ("yee"), conflating it with the archaic nominative case of the second person plural pronoun, "ye", as in "Ye are many".
There we go. Printers convention and shortage of letter Thorn led to Ye = The Yt = That.
Archaic nominative case of the second person plural pronoun, "ye", as in "Ye are many".
Ye, 2nd person still means "y'all".
Final note.... "Shoppe" pseudo archaic use of a West Saxon dative case indicated by the "e". (Ie, "located at or in the Shop or 'to the shop"")
"At first we thought they were just another snake cult, then they started putting up towers everywhere!" (line from Conan the Barbarian.)
(Then there is Kew gardens! (Le Jardin du Roi Anglais!)
Weekly Digest: the other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, alpha:
The great thinkers from in history from many disciplines used to meet at the pub to talk. They influenced our society.
I suggest we all start this great tradition in our local communities.
The great thinkers from in history from many disciplines used to meet at the pub to talk. They influenced our society.
Immanuel Kant was a real piss-ant who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table. ..
David Hume could out-consume Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine who was just as sloshed as Schlegel.
There’s nothing Nietzsche couldn’t teach ‘ya ‘bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will, after half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away, half a crate of whiskey every day!
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,
And Hobbes was fond of his Dram.
And René Descartes was a drunken fart:
“I drink, therefore I am.”
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pissed.
You were looking for a melon this spring. Were you ever able to find it?
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