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FERRY INN HORNING Index
FERRY ROAD
LOWER STREET
TUNSTEAD HUNDRED FULL LICENCE 01692 630259
TUNSTEAD & HAPPING LICENCE REGISTERS 1794 &  PS 11/4/1 to PS 11/4/5 (Feb 1928 to Feb 1980)
COLTISHALL BREWERY to at least 1876
STEWARD & PATTESON Sold by S&P October 1930
A. W. WATSON    
ALBERT WALTER STRINGER 1935 (Selling Trunch Brewery ales 1938)
STEWARD & PATTESON From May 1960
WATNEY MANN   
NORWICH BREWERY   
.   
TFI by 2018
Licensees :
Mrs Grabbard 1500
-  
WILLIAM WRIGHT 1794
-  
Mr. (Robert?) CROW 1826
ROBERT CROWE
age 52 in 1851
& boat owner
& farmer
1836 - 1856
WILLIAM CROWE
& tailor 1858
age 39 in 1861
& coal merchant
1858 - 1879
HORACE HOWLETT 1881
GEORGE THOMPSON
& ferry owner
1883 - 1892
WILLIAM ROBERT CROWE
Age 42 in 1911
1896 - 1916
Tuesday 26th September 1916 - Fine of £3 for allowing consumption of intoxicating liquor, on the premises, on 13th September at 9:22pm, prohibited hours.
<This was a Wednesday evening - wartime limitation to opening hours?>
MARK OSBORNE 1922
A. R. STRINGER
sole proprietor
1925
ALFRED PERRY by 1928
ARTHUR WESLEY WATSON 13.10.1930
ROY EVERARD
(A. R. Stringer also recorded as joint proprietor 1933)
12.10.1931
ARTHUR SCOTT 08.10.1934
ALBERT ROBERT STRINGER
(Mac & Rita)
02.12.1935
MARK OSBORNE - as 1937 directory, but not found in licence registers - Manager?
LOUIS REGINALD CANHAM 05.09.1960
WILLIAM GRAHAM CAMPBELL 01.05.1961
PERCY EDGAR RUSH 08.07.1962
ANTHONY DOMINIC WILLIAM MAWER 26.04.1965
PERCY EDGAR RUSH 18.04.1966
LESLIE CHARLES JEEVES 16.10.1967
COLIN ERNEST HOWES 03.02.1969
PETER TURNER
(Reputed to be tallest landlord in England - at 6' - 8" according to February 1969 report)
Manager - Does not appear in licence registers.
Here 
13th February 1969
SARA & EDWARD GEORGE SHADBOLT 01.10.1973
COLIN ERNEST HOWES 15.11.1976
BRIAN & RACHEL WARD 14.02.1977
JOHN FILBY 06.02.1978
MICHAEL GEORGE WHYLES 18.09.1978
JOHN FILBY 11.12.1978
ROGER SCOTT-PHILLIPS 11.02.1980
-  
IAN CHINN from 2010 - 2017
LYUBO DRAGOEV &
IAN CHINN
from 2017
PAUL WALKER
general manager
by 08.2023



 
On Friday 17th April 1908 William `Barlow' Debbage sang
"Shannon Side"
"Nancy"
"Died For Love"
"Bold Princess Royal"
"Smugglers Boy"
"Faithful Sailor Boy"
and it was possibly him  who performed "Old King Cole"
 to Ralph Vaughan Williams who was visiting the area collecting traditional songs.


(Information thanks to the researches of Alan Helsdon 2017)
 

Site of a Mead House established by St. Benets monks c1040.

A Mrs Grabbard is thought to have leased the house in 1500 at an annual rent of  7shillings plus two fat hens.

Lot No. 17 in sale by auction of the Coltishall Brewery estate 21st May 1796. ``With a yard and the barn, stables and outhouses thereto belonging; Also about 3 Acres 2 Roods by estimation of arable land and about 9 acres by estimation of marsh land with a reed rond * ; Also a commodious Ferry Boat built a few years since at the expense of £100 and upwards; Together with Tolls arising from the ferry. Leasehold of the Bishop of Norwich for three lives viz, of William Baker Esq., aged about 80 years, Susanna Ransome aged about 41 years and the said Chapman Ives aged about 38 years. Lease rent 8 shillings per annum.''

Leasehold premises, owned by the Lord Bishop of Norwich for three lives, as advertised for sale 4th November 1797. Including Yard, Barn, Stables, Outhouses and about 4 acres of arable land and 9 acres of marsh land.

Lot No. 7 in a Sale by Auction Saturday 30th January 1819.
Of the 8 Lots, seven were public houses about the county.

One end of original house was rebuilt and carried the date 1825.
(As recorded 1938 when the telephone number for the proprietor was Horning 2. The house was said to be the only Free House on the Broads).

Steward & Patteson took over the house in May 1960. One of the first improvements they made was to replace `chemical' toilet facilities with W. C.'s and upgrade the urinals.

Given as the FERRY HOUSE 1872 & 1879.
Also given as the FERRY HOTEL.


1904

The thatched house was destroyed by bombing at 9.45pm 26th April 1941. Subsequent reports stated that 21 of the 24 occupants were killed. A later account gives the number of dead as 22. Licensee Albert Stringer was `pulled alive from the wreckage by his wife Rita'.

In 1954 Mr. R. A. Stringer purchased a door, dating from 1614 once fitted to the NEW LOBSTER INN, Norwich, which, according to the report,  had been demolished in 1828. (However the NEW LOBSTER was still listed to 1830). Paying £16 for the door, it was intended to be used in the post war rebuilding.

The house was again destroyed by fire 31st March 1965 and again rebuilt.

 

 

The TFI RESTAURANT by mid 2017.

 

* Reed Rond = Dredged material deposited against river bank to allow reed growth and habitat for wildlife and fish.

 

See pages 19 and 22 in The Norfolk Broads In Old Postcards, first published 1990.

  Memories collected by Chris Holderness of Rig-a-Jig-Jig for the East Anglian Traditional Musical Trust.
The CH numbers refer to Chris's Archive on eatmt.org
.
 
 

From Broadland Sport by Nicholas Everitt, 1902       (CH B11-1-1b)

Visiting first the low-roofed kitchen, we watched for upwards of half an hour the many and varied step dances of the Horning rustics. An American hand organ* provided the music and a liberal supply of nutty brown ale, with a dash of gin in it, promoted the energy of the dancers to an extent amazing to onlookers.'

*If he is referring to a barrel organ, or a harmonium, they are most unsuitable for accompanying step dancing. It was more likely to have been a melodeon, which Mr Everitt had probably never seen before. AH