New crew aboard Ye Olde Ferrie

A waterside 15th-century freehold inn on the banks of the River Wye in Herefordshire has changed hands.

The Ye Olde Ferrie Inne, which lives up to its name by operating a ferry service at Symonds Yat West, was snapped up for an undisclosed sum off a guide price of £595,000.

Nicholas Calfe, of Christie & Co's Bristol office, said: 'Ye Olde Ferrie Inne has a three-crown English Tourist Board rating and is principally tourist-led during the summer months with a good mix of day-trippers and holidaymakers.

'It is an ideal base for both school, private parties and outdoor enthusiasts and is an ideal stopping place for the many leisure cruisers operating along the River Wye.

'A ferry boat is also owned by the business and there is a slipway to the ferry point from which a cable extends to the opposite side of the river, enabling a ferry operator to hand pull it from one side of the river to the other.

Calfe added that there is an additional mooring point near the inn's car park area, which provides a landing point for various river boats that operate for tourists.

The inn has a combination of one, two and three-storey buildings. The pub features a main bar with open-plan dining areas to seat 70 and a pool room.

There are seven letting bedrooms, six of which are en suite. At the front of the inn, there are two terraced seating areas which face the river. The owner's apartment is on the first floor and has a private kitchen, two en-suite bedrooms and a separate lounge.

The business was sold on behalf of a family based in the Channel Islands. 'They operated the inn for a short period in the mid-1990s, after which it was let out to several different operators until autumn 2004 when the last tenant left and then it remained empty, Calfe added.