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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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1841

Thomas Metcalf

Alice Metcalf née Christmas

Jemima, daughter

Mary Ann, daughter

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1851

Alice Metcalf, widow, publican

William, nephew, 21

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1854

Mary Ann married lodger, William Jackson, brick-maker

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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

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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

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1939

William Hollis, b 1872, innkeeper

Eleanor, b 1881

Edith Perry, b 1907, cashier

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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.

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1957

Tom Arnold married barmaid Alma Dodd

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The ferry is decorated on Oak Day with poles decorated with Chinese lanterns.