How tree-ring dating settled it

More than two dozen English pubs claim to be the country's oldest, but according to buildings archaeologist Dr James Wright of Historic England, not one of the claimants is even close. To test the titles, Wright turned to tree-ring dating on the wooden beams of pubs - a process known as dendrochronology - to establish when the buildings were actually constructed.

The method works because of how medieval builders worked. Carpenters felled timber while it was green and built almost immediately afterwards, so the felling date gives a near date of construction. Wright's criteria were strict as well: a pub had to have been purpose-built as a public house, traded continuously, and retained archaeological, archival or dendrochronological evidence of significant original fabric from its first build.

The claims that fall apart

The famous claimants fare badly under this scrutiny. Ye Olde Fighting Cocks in St Albans, Hertfordshire, claims to have been established around AD800; the Bingley Arms in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, claims more than 1,000 years; and the Royal Standard in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, claims to have hosted King Alfred the Great's West Saxons around AD880. According to Wright, most such claims are modern marketing strategies. Of the Fighting Cocks' date, he said: "This date was probably not arrived at until 1926 when it appeared on a postcard."

He noted earlier speculations of 1030, 770 and 672 for the building. In fact, the Fighting Cocks started as a monastic dovecote built around 1400, and it is only verifiably a public house from the first decade of the 19th century. As for pub listings in historical records, Wright said: "There are no pubs mentioned – at all – in the Domesday Book, so any pub claiming to be in it is having you on."

He believes the claims originate less in folklore than in canny marketing by landlords, tenants, breweries and pub companies, relying on public ignorance of how historic buildings are dated.

The genuine medieval inns

Applying his criteria, Wright concluded that only about 12 to 16 genuine contenders have been trading since the medieval period, all dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. His list includes:

• the George Inn in Norton St Philip, Somerset - dated to the late 14th century and to 1430-32, in continuous use as an inn since around 1430-1432 and named the oldest pub in England
• the Bull Hotel in Ludlow, Shropshire, with fabric from the 14th and 15th centuries
• the King's Head in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, dated to 1426 and 1430-31
• the New Inn in Gloucester, dated 1432
• the White Hart Inn in Hook, Hampshire, with timbers from 1419-51
• the George Hotel in Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, from the mid 15th century
• the Angel Inn in Andover, Hampshire, dated 1445-55
• the Kings Head in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, also dated 1445-55
• the Angel in Grantham, Lincolnshire, from circa 1450
• the George and Pilgrims Inn in Glastonbury, Somerset, dated 1461-83
• the Saracen's Head in Southwell, Lincolnshire, from the 1460s
• the George Hotel in Odiham, Hampshire, dated 1486-87

Wright said the George Inn's stone and timber architecture suggests the building has been in continuous service for over 600 years. It was set up in the 14th century by monks of nearby Hinton Priory.