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Old Ferry Boat Inn, Holywell, William Fraser Garden (1856-1921) Old Ferry Boat Inn, Holywell
History of the Old Ferry Boat Inn
Listed Building
C17 Inn with earlier cross-wing, re-roofed to left hand. Two-storeys, one-storey and attic.
The Ferry Boat used to be two separate dwellings, the inn ‘The Boat’, facing the river, and Ferry Cottage, facing west. Hereward the Wake is said to have crossed the river at this point.
Old Ferry Boat Inn, Holywell, William Fraser Garden (1856-1921)
The Holywell Story by Joe Newell as a chapter about the inn. It suggests that there would have been a ferry here from before Roman times. The present inn contains bog oak dating from the 14th or 15th centuries. Some believe it to be the oldest inn in England! The ferry existed into the 1930s.
According to a 2022 story in the Cambridgeshire Live website, this pub is believed to be haunted by the ghost of Juliet Tewsley.
The story is that on March 17th 1050 a 17 year old local girl fell in love with a forester called Tom Zoul. Tom did not return her love and Juliet took her own life. She was buried in unhallowed ground close to the inn and her grave was marked with a plain stone slab. Because of the expansion of the pub the slab is now inside the inn and it is claimed that on March 17th each year an apparition rises from the river and glides towards the grave. Many strange events have been recorded at the location.
The grave stone at the Old Ferry Boat Inn Holywell (RGL2025)
The Metcalfe family had a long association with the Holywell area living at Wildcroft, the Ferry Boat Inn ans also the Pike and Eel, Overcote Ferry.
1841
Thomas Metcalf
Alice Metcalf née Christmas
Jemima, daughter
Mary Ann, daughter
1851
Alice Metcalf, widow, publican
William, nephew, 21
1854
Mary Ann married lodger, William Jackson, brick-maker
1881 Ferry Boat Public
William Jackson, 60, publican, b Cambridge
Mary A, 53, b Holywell
Elizabeth Tansom, visitor, 65, servant, b Needingworth
Henry Crane, servant, 20, ferry man, b Longstanton
Edward Stukings, lodger, 37, farm labourer, b Holywell
1891 The Ferry Ho public house
William Jackson, 73, publican, b Cambridge
Mary A, 65, b Holywell
William C, nephew, 27, electrician, b London
James Turner, servant, 62, labourer, b Needingorth
1939
William Hollis, b 1872, innkeeper
Eleanor, b 1881
Edith Perry, b 1907, cashier
1943
‘The Holywell Story’ recount how the authorJoe Newell was told by his old friend Tom Arnold of Holywell how that summer flew their Avro Lancaster so low over the village that Beatty Carter, licensee of the Ferry Boat looked up as she was carrying a crate of beer across her yard. As a result she fell down the pump hole and broke her ankle.
1957
Tom Arnold married barmaid Alma Dodd
Old Ferry Boat Inn, Holywell (RGL2025)
Old Ferry Boat Inn, Holywell (RGL2025)
River Ouse at Holywell (RGL2025)
Common land outside Old Ferry Boat Inn, Holywell (RGL2025)
Old Ferry Boat Inn, Holywell (RGL2025)
Oak Day celebration, 1892, Holywell
The ferry is decorated on Oak Day with poles decorated with Chinese lanterns.
Holywell Ferry, 1900
Sportsman in winter at the Ferry Boat, Holywell c1900
Ferry boat Inn, Holywell
A watercolour of the Ferry Boat Inn set in winter, artist unknown
Ferry Boat Inn, Holywell
1947: wrecked drawbridge in front of Ferry Boat Inn, Holywell
1947: Tom Arnold on punt during flood at Ferry Boat, Holywell
Ferry Boat Inn, Holywell, surrounded by water in 1959
1959 flood: Tom Arnold at Holywell during flood
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