The oldest pubs in England….or not….?

The Mermaid Inn, Rye

On my post of 13 May 2024, concerning Greasley Castle in Nottinghamshire, a comment was left by Anne Ayres concerning the archaeologist Dr James Wright, who features in the investigations at Greasley Castle. She wrote because he had given a talk to “….our Richard III Group only yesterday! The subject was Medieval Loos, a follow-up of last October’s talk on Medieval Pubs, Inns and Taverns – and their dubious claims to be ‘The Oldest Pub in England’….”

Anne recommended Dr Wright’s site at Triskele Heritage and I took a look. It is indeed a fascinating site, and if you go to this link—Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog #28: Ancient Pub-lore – Triskele Heritage (triskelepublishing.com)—you can read the article about England’s oldest pubs.

Thank you, Anne!

Dr James Wright

You can read more about Dr Wright here James Wright – Triskele Heritage (triskelepublishing.com)

1 comment

  1. How lovely that his piece starts with The Mermaid – an inn I have never seen but aways wanted to visit. For me, and others of my generation, it was the model for “The Gay Dolphin” – one of the “Lone Pine” series of children’s adventure books of the forties and fifties by Malcolm Saville. They’d probably not use that name for the rambling old building now!

    A haunt of smugglers on “Trader Street,” it was lovingly described and was the backdrop for the first of his Lone Pine stories to be set away from the Shropshire hills. It’s now on my bucket list!

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