Tree-ring dating names George Inn in Somerset as England’s oldest pub

Wright told the Guardian that none of the more than two dozen pubs claiming the title was “even vaguely close” to being the oldest in reality. He said the George Inn’s stone and timber indicated more than 600 years of continuous service and that the inn was established in the 14th century by monks from nearby Hinton Priory. Tree-ring dating, he said, helped establish the age of the timbers scientifically. Because medieval carpenters felled green timber and built almost immediately, the felling date gives a near date for construction, he added.

The article said many claimant pubs cite origins stretching back 1,000 years or more. Ye Olde Fighting Cocks in St Albans, Hertfordshire, says it was established around AD800. The Bingley Arms in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, describes itself as “the original English pub – officially the oldest in Britain” and dates its history more than 1,000 years to the Viking era. The Royal Standard in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, says it was a watering hole for King Alfred the Great’s West Saxons around AD880.

Wright said such claims appeared to be mostly “modern marketing strategies.” He said the Fighting Cocks is often said to date to AD793, a date that probably did not appear until 1926 on a postcard; before that, he said, speculated dates included 1030, 770 and 672. He said the building began as a monastic dovecote around 1400 and that the earliest date it can definitely be said to have operated as a public house is the first decade of the 19th century. He also dismissed claims of Domesday Book mentions, saying no pubs are mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Wright’s criteria were that a building was purpose-built as a public house, had been in continuous service and had archaeological, archival or dendrochronological evidence of significant surviving original fabric. He said that after considering converted buildings and changes in land use, only about 12 to 16 genuine contenders had been trading since the medieval period, with the oldest dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. His list includes the George Inn; the Bull Hotel in Ludlow, Shropshire; the King’s Head in Shrewsbury, Shropshire; the New Inn in Gloucester; the White Hart Inn in Hook, Hampshire; the George Hotel in Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire; the Angel Inn in Andover, Hampshire; the King’s Head in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire; the Angel in Grantham, Lincolnshire; the George and Pilgrims Inn in Glastonbury, Somerset; the Saracen’s Head in Southwell, Lincolnshire; and the George Hotel in Odiham, Hampshire.