// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Could Somerset pub be the oldest in England?
The George Inn, in Somerset, could hold the claim to the title of England's oldest pub
Being England's oldest pub is a title claimed by a number of establishments across the country.
Pubs in Nottingham, St Albans and Lincolnshire have all, in the past, claimed to be that very establishment - but one pub in Somerset may have a stronger claim than its rivals.
The George Inn, in Norton St Philip, south of Bath, is the focus of that elusive claim of being the country's oldest pub - thanks to some investigative work by Historic England.
Buildings archaeologist Dr James Wright said science "pinpoints the archaeological development of the George Inn" to about 1430.
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The pub itself is Grade I listed and was constructed as a store for wool for the nearby Hinton Charterhouse.
It would also welcome travellers who attended the annual wool fairs which were held from the 13th Century until Victorian times.
Samuel Pepys (of Great Fire of London diarist fame) stopped there in 1668, describing it as "a very old house" and it also served as the headquarters for the Duke of Monmouth during the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685.
Its history then gets a little more grizzly because after the Duke's defeat, the pub became a court room for 'hanging judge' George Jeffreys who infamously condemned local rebels during the Bloody Assizes.