The arguments around which pub is actually the oldest in the country looks likely to be settled with the publication of Historic Building Mythbusting by James Wright.
Well known claimants include Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham and The Fighting Cocks in St Albans, but according to Wright, neither of these pubs lives up to the claims made.
Wright said that while Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem claims to have been built in 1189, it isn’t even the oldest pub in Nottingham, let alone the UK, pointing out that building has been stylistically dated to the 17th century.
Meanwhile, St Alban’s Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, despite claiming to date back to 793, was originally a dovecote in a different location, with the earliest mention of it in records as a pub dated to 1756.
However, the pub with the claim to probably being the country’s oldest, according to Wright, is Butcombe’s The George Inn, Norton St Philip, Somerset, which he says dates back to 1397.
He also highlighted Marston’s the Bull Hotel in Ludlow, Shropshire, which he believes, with further research could pre-date the George.
The Morning Advertiser’s Ed Bedington caught up with Wright to chat about the findings in the video above.