2 July 2023
(Header Image Credit: Ian S / Wikimedia Commons)
There are many pubs which are claimed to be the oldest. Certain names crop up time and again – the Old Ferryboat Inn, St Ives (claim: 560AD); Porch House, Stow-on-the-Wold (claim: 970AD); or the Old Man & Scythe, Bolton (claim: 1251AD). In this blog we’ve covered the claims of various Nottingham pubs, including Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (claim: 1189AD), and penned an article on the variables involved in dating ancient inns. Elsewhere, the historian Jon Mein has assessed the claims made by the Ye Olde Fighting Cocks at St Albans to have opened in 793AD (spoiler: it probably didn’t).
One name is repeatedly listed as a potential contender – the Bingley Arms at Bardsey-cum-Rigton, which is claimed to date back to 953AD. In this article I’m going to outline the evidence for the date of this West Yorkshire boozer.
The Claim
The Bingley Arms’ website makes the following claim: “The Bingley Arms is no ordinary pub. It’s the original English pub – officially the oldest in Britain – dating back over 1000 years to a time when Vikings were conquering parts of the country and before England had its first King.” The date on the website is a tad non-specific, but the pub’s social media account is proudly entitled The Bingley Arms 953ad. Around the building there are various signs which also proclaim the origin date of 953AD. One example even indicates that the Bingley Arms is “England’s Oldest Inn Recorded in the Guinness Book of Records”.
The Bingley Arms (Image Credit: JThomas / Wikimedia Commons)
Elsewhere, the Yorkshire Post ran an article, in July 2019, which claimed that: “The hostelry is mentioned in the Domesday Book and has a recorded history dating back to 953AD”.
To summarise, the various claims include the following statements:
- The Bingley Arms predates England’s first king.
- The pub is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.
- It is officially the oldest pub in Britain according to the Guinness Book of Records.
- The building dates to 953AD.
This all sounds very definitive… but can any of it be verified?
England’s First King
The development of the kingdom of England took place during a protracted period from the second half of the ninth to the earlier tenth century. Broadly speaking, the political and military circumstances brought about by Viking incursions during the mid-ninth century led to the gradual expansion of the kingdom of Wessex. Under the rule of the kings Alfred, Edward, and Aethelstan the formerly independent states of Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria were incorporated into a single political entity which became known as England.
Aethelstan is widely noted to have been the first king of a united England after the capitulation of the Viking kingdom centred on York in 927. Although the situation remained fluid, most early mediaeval historians agree that it was Aethelstan who can be reliably named as England’s first king (Livingston 2021, 93-98; Holland 2016, 56-61; Stenton 1971, 340-41).
Detail of Aethelstan presenting a book (Image Credit: Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge / Wikimedia Commons)
Given that Aethelstan was in control of Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria by 927, it may not be historically accurate to say that the Bingley Arms (which is claimed to date to 953) was built at a time “before England had its first King.”
Domesday Book
The Bingley Arms is not alone in being noted to be referenced in the Domesday Book. The assertion is also made by the Royal Standard of England at Forty Green, Buckinghamshire (another claimant to be the oldest pub in the country). However, according to an authoritative history of the Great British boozer published by English Heritage (now called Historic England): “The Domesday Survey of 1086, which deals with the value of land and identifies those holding it, has not a single mention of alehouses or other drinking establishments” (Brandwood, Davison & Slaughter 2004, 3).
The Domesday Book (Image Credit: The National Archives)
The text of the Domesday Book is freely available to access online and the statement that there are no pubs included within it can be easily checked. Brandwood et al seem to be entirely correct; therefore, the Bingley Arms is unlikely to be mentioned in the 1086 survey.
Guinness World Records
There are at least three pubs which currently claim that Guinness World Records have included them as an entry for the category of oldest pub: Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, St Albans; Sean’s Bar, Athlone; and the Bingley Arms. The problem with the contention is that Guinness World Records do not maintain a category for oldest pub. Although they may once have done so, their website is now completely empty for such a category. They have even confirmed this via their official social media account.
Given that Guinness World Records no longer monitor the category of oldest pub, the Bingley Arms might no longer officially hold such a title.
The Date of 953AD
We must be extremely cautious of any claim that a building dates to the early mediaeval period. The architectural historians Mary and Nigel Kerr have pointed out that there are around 400 buildings in the country which can genuinely claim to have pre-Norman fabric within their structure – and all of them are ecclesiastical (Kerr & Kerr 1983, 7). Research indicates that we probably do not have any roofed, domestic, secular buildings surviving anywhere in England from the tenth century. This appears to put the claim of the Bingley Arms to date to 953 into some doubt.
The listed building entry by Historic England for the Bingley Arms points to it being a mid-eighteenth building with later nineteenth and twentieth century remodelling. It bears a close similarity to other stone-built structures in the region constructed around the same period. The listing even notes a date stone of 1738, which may refer to the year of construction. The entry also makes it clear that the inspector saw the property both externally and internally; so we can have a reasonable degree of confidence in the assessment.
The Bingley Arms (Image Credit: Mtaylor848 / Wikimedia Commons)
The architectural details of the building chime well with this assessment. The historic core of the pub is built entirely from locally quarried Carboniferous sandstone. During the mediaeval period, stone was mostly used in West Yorkshire for high status construction projects such as castles, great houses, abbeys, priories, and churches. Gradually, it became used in manor houses from the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Stone was only routinely extended to non-elite domestic buildings, such as the Bingley Arms, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Lott 2023, 4). Prior to this period vernacular architecture was dominated by timber-framed structures (Giles 1986, 26-47). Further features which help to date the building to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries include the details of doors, sash windows, beam stops, and fireplaces (Hall 2005, 42-44, 76-82, 158-63, 180-86). However, much of the pub’s fixtures and fittings date to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The material culture of the Bingley Arms points towards a primary construction date in the mid-eighteenth century with evidence for later remodelling.
Myth-making
The claim that the building dates to 953 is made so often that it is widely believed and repeated. The source of the claim may be the business itself as repetition always seems to circle back to the pub’s own publicity materials. A recent article published by Leeds Live, which backs up the 953 date, made no attempt at critical evaluation and reads as a regurgitation of details published on the Bingley Arms’ website.
It is not possible to confidently identify the source of the 953 claims, but the date may be a nod in the direction of the tower at All Hallows, Bardsey cum Rigton. The latter is conventionally assumed to date to 850-950 (NHLE 1135652; Pevsner & Radcliffe 1967, 89). It is not uncommon for the claims of other pubs to attempt to link with the established early histories of their settlements – as may have happened with Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, St Albans and Porch House, Stow-on-the-Wold. The implication being that if the settlement existed then there *must* have been a pub. Unfortunately, this may be a logical fallacy.
One problem for the tenth century assertion is that there has yet to be any archaeological or archival evidence presented. The claim is repeated, and the stories are told, but the evidence is never offered. Popular folklore suggests that the building dates to the tenth century whereas archaeological research points in the direction of the eighteenth century.
Meanwhile, the Bingley Arms has yet to be cited as an ancient building in the hard-nosed, peer reviewed and authoritative texts on the history of public houses (for example: Brunning 2014; Brandwood, Davison & Slaughter 2004; Haydon 1994). There are genuinely ancient pubs still surviving from the mediaeval period; including the George Inn, Norton St Philip (dated c 1375 and remodelled 1430) and the New Inn, Gloucester (dated (1430-32); but they do not pre-date the later fourteenth century. The claim that the Bingley Arms is a tenth century building is almost worthy of the controversial pseudo-archaeologist Graham Hancock himself!
Conclusions
Most of the pubs which claim to be the oldest in the country seem to present little in the way of evidence to back up the dates on their signs. The majority – including the Ferryboat, Fighting Cocks, Porch House, Trip to Jerusalem and Old Man & Scythe – are housed within post-mediaeval buildings and probably did not open until the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. Alas, it is unfortunate to write, that a good rule of thumb is to gently discount whatever date is painted on a pub sign because even the quickest piece of research may usually prove it incorrect.
There is nothing especially unusual in the Bingley Arms’ claim to be tenth century or that news outlets and popular websites regurgitate that date without critical evaluation. There may be a desire, on the part of some people, to want to believe invented histories. Such views might reinforce an emotionally driven, rose-tinted, misty-eyed, romantic view of the past which ye olde British boozer seems to specialise in.
I genuinely do not have any ulterior motive in writing this article. I have nothing against the past or present landlords of the Bingley Arms. I wish them well. However, history matters. It is a major component of local and national identity. Unfortunately, the popularly believed tenth century date for the Bingley Arms might not be supported by the evidence. Instead, it is probably a building of the mid-eighteenth century and later.
The fact that the pub may be eighteenth century should not be a source of shame or disappointment. By embracing a verifiable and accurate history the locals and tourists who patronise the Bingley Arms could still proudly support a thriving business which is providing excellent food and drink. It is the community value of the pub that is of greatest significance here.
Dedication
This article is dedicated to the bafflingly eccentric persistence of Phillip Wood.
References
Brandwood, G., Davison, A., & Slaughter, M., 2004, Licensed to Sell – The History and Heritage of the Public House. English Heritage. Swindon.
Brunning, T., 2014, Merrie England: The Medieval Roots of the Great British Pub. Bright Pen.
Giles, C., 1986, Rural Houses of West Yorkshire, 1400-1830. Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. London.
Hall, L., 2005, Period House Fixtures and Fittings, 1300-1900. Countryside Books. Newbury.
Haydon, P., 1994, The English Pub. Robert Hale. London.
Holland, T., 2016, Athelstan – The Making of England. Allen Lane. London.
Kerr, M. & N., 1983, Anglo-Saxon Architecture. Shire. Princes Risborough.
Livingston, M., 2021, Never Greater Slaughter – Brunanburh and the Birth of England. Osprey. Oxford.
Lott, G., 2023, West and South Yorkshire: Building Stones of England. Historic England. Swindon.
Pevsner, N. & Radcliffe, E., 1967, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire – West Riding. Penguin. London.
Stenton, F., 1971, Anglo-Saxon England. Clarendon Press. Oxford.
About the author
James Wright (Triskele Heritage) is an award-winning buildings archaeologist who frequently writes and lectures on the subject of mediaeval building myths. He has two decades professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how ordinary and extraordinary folk lived their lives in the mediaeval period.
He welcomes contact through Twitter or email.
The Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog blog is the basis of a forthcoming book – Historic Building Mythbusting – Uncovering Folklore, History and Archaeology which will be released via The History Press on 6 June 2024. More information can be found here:
