Historic riverside inn · White-lady tradition · Folklore in motion
Old Ferry Boat Inn
Holywell · Cambridgeshire
A thatched Grade II-listed inn beside the Great Ouse, where an older white-lady tradition acquired a name, a date and an apparently ancient tragedy in the space of a few remarkable years.
Photo: Chris Morgan / Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Come for the riverside inn. Stay for the ghost story that grew its own medieval past.
The Old Ferry Boat is a working pub, restaurant and hotel in the quiet village of Holywell. Its official Grade II listing describes a 17th-century inn with an earlier cross-wing. Inside, a dark flagstone and the tale of Juliet Tewsley have become inseparable from the building – but the most intriguing part of the story may be how Juliet acquired her identity.
Your visit at a glance
Visitor information verified 8 August 2026Juliet Tewsley—and the making of an ancient ghost
The familiar version says that Juliet died on 17 March 1050 after a tragic love affair and was buried beneath the flagstone now inside the inn. Her spirit is said to return on the anniversary. It is a wonderfully complete legend – perhaps because much of that completeness arrived later.
A white lady and a moving stone
Before Juliet’s named story took hold, local tradition already connected the inn with a female apparition appearing on 17 March and pointing towards a flagstone in the floor.
That older, less detailed tale was the reason investigators came to the pub in the first place.A name arrives through a glass
Psychical researcher Tony Cornell and four companions held a vigil. No apparition appeared, so the group improvised a Ouija board using a tray and an upturned wine glass.
The session supplied the names Juliet Tewsley and Thomas Zhoul, the year 1050 and the claim that Juliet lay beneath the stone.From séance to local legend
Newspapers promoted a return vigil, later retellings added romance, rejection and tragedy, and the story entered ghost books and the identity of the inn.
Within a generation, a modern investigation had acquired the weight and texture of an ancient village memory.Unpicking the story does not make the place less strange
Cornell reportedly searched for the Tewsley and Zhoul names and found no historical match. He recognised that expectation and the ideomotor effect could have shaped the Ouija-board answers. Later research has traced the detailed Juliet narrative through the 1953 session, newspaper publicity and subsequent embellishment.
Yet the investigation began because a white-lady tradition was already attached to the inn, and later visitors and staff have continued to describe unusual experiences. The named medieval tragedy and the wider haunting tradition are therefore related – but they are not quite the same story.
A real old inn—even without the 560 claim
The pub promotes a tradition reaching back to AD 560 and is one of several contenders for England’s oldest inn. The surviving building offers a firmer historical anchor.
The listed building
Historic England describes a 17th-century inn with an earlier cross-wing, timber framing, thatched roofs and later alterations.
The vanished ferry
The inn stands beside a long-used crossing of the Great Ouse. The ferry that gave the pub its name survived into the 1930s.
A story still in use
This is not a preserved historic set. It remains a busy pub and hotel where the folklore sits alongside meals, rooms and riverside visits.
Follow the story without forgetting you are in someone’s local
The best visit is simple: enjoy the riverside setting, spend time inside the historic building and let the famous stone become one detail in a much larger place.
A simple way to explore
Allow time for the building, the folklore and the riverfront.
Begin by the Great Ouse
Take in the thatched exterior and the riverside position that shaped the inn’s name and atmosphere.
Look for the flagstone
Inside, find the stone associated with Juliet’s story without obstructing staff or other guests.
Keep both stories in view
Enjoy the older white-lady tradition and the extraordinary 1953 origin of Juliet’s biography – then decide which is more intriguing.
Getting there
The inn is on Holywell Front beside the River Great Ouse, approximately two miles east of St Ives.
Accessibility & facilities
The official venue information lists disabled facilities, but does not publish detailed step-free routes or toilet specifications. Contact the pub before travelling if you have specific requirements.
Continue along the Great Ouse
Pair the inn with working heritage or one of England’s rare surviving bridge chapels.
Houghton Mill
Explore an 18th-century watermill and the surrounding meadows. Mill access is seasonal and may require booking, so check before setting out.
National Trust visitor information ↗St Ledger’s Chapel
See the Grade I-listed chapel built over a pier of St Ives’ medieval bridge—a rare survival beside another historic Great Ouse crossing.
Historic England record ↗Meet Juliet – then look beyond her legend
Check current hours, book ahead if you plan to eat or stay, and explore a riverside inn where history and storytelling have been crossing paths for generations.