The Ferry Inn, Salcombe: The Remarkable Story of Salcombe’s Most Famous Waterside Pub
Nearly Three Centuries Beside the Salcombe Ferry
There are pubs with historic names, pubs with memorable views and pubs that have become part of a town’s identity.
The Ferry Inn in Salcombe is all three.
Standing at Orestone Steps on the western shore of the Kingsbridge Estuary, the inn occupies one of Salcombe’s most evocative positions. Its terraces look across the water towards East Portlemouth, while the passenger ferry continues to arrive and depart only a few steps from its entrance.
Visitors searching for the best pubs in Salcombe often discover The Ferry Inn because of that view. Yet its location is much more than a beautiful backdrop.
For centuries, this was a point of movement and exchange. Passengers waited for the ferry. Sailors came ashore. Working boats crossed the harbour. Coastguards watched the water. Residents gathered news, conducted business and met travellers passing through the town.
Long before Salcombe became associated with sailing holidays, second homes and summer lunches beside the estuary, an inn stood here serving a very different waterfront community.
Originally known as the Commercial Inn, today’s Ferry Inn is one of the surviving witnesses to Salcombe’s transformation from working maritime town to one of Britain’s most desirable coastal destinations.
Is The Ferry Inn the Oldest Pub in Salcombe?
The Ferry Inn describes itself as Salcombe’s oldest pub and dates the building to 1739.
Historic England is more cautious in its wording, identifying the building as eighteenth century in origin with later alterations. It was formally designated a Grade II listed building in February 1974.
The distinction matters.
A building can survive from the eighteenth century without every part of it having remained unchanged. Historic inns evolved according to the needs of their customers. Rooms were rearranged, windows altered, extensions added and entrances adapted as the town and harbour developed around them.
What survives at The Ferry Inn is therefore not a perfectly preserved Georgian interior. It is something more interesting: a building that has continued to function while accumulating the marks of different periods.
From the narrow landward side, it can appear relatively modest. Viewed from the estuary, however, its scale becomes clearer. Historic records describe a four-storey seaward elevation, reflecting the steep fall between Fore Street and the water below.
The waterfront dictated the shape of the building.
That alone tells us where the inn’s attention once lay. It faced not simply towards the street, but towards the harbour that supplied its customers, its trade and its reason for existing.
The Hidden Architectural Details of The Ferry Inn
Many people enter The Ferry Inn without realising how much of the building’s history is visible around them.
Historic descriptions identify an eighteenth-century door frame associated with a boat doorway, together with a six-panel entrance door and a square, canted bay above it.
The reference to a boat doorway is particularly intriguing.
It reinforces the close physical connection between the building and the water below. This was not merely a pub that happened to have an estuary view. It was constructed within a working maritime environment where boats, cargoes and passengers approached from the harbour.
On the eastern, seaward face, traditional windows sit alongside later replacements and alterations. Brick arches can also be seen over some openings on the lower levels.
These details are not grand architectural flourishes. They are quieter evidence of a building adapted over time.
The uneven levels, varied openings and differing materials reveal how The Ferry Inn grew with Salcombe rather than arriving as a single, carefully planned structure.
Five details to look for when visiting The Ferry Inn
- The contrast between the modest Fore Street frontage and the taller elevation facing the estuary.
- The historic entrance arrangement and six-panel door.
- The bay window projecting above the entrance.
- The lower-level openings facing the water.
- The relationship between the pub, Ferry Cottage, Orestone Steps and the Old Watch House.
Together, these features make this corner of Salcombe far more historically significant than it may initially appear.
Orestone: One of the Earliest Parts of Salcombe
The history of The Ferry Inn cannot be separated from Orestone.
Modern Salcombe stretches along the steep western bank of the estuary, but it did not develop evenly. Early settlement appears to have formed in small waterfront groups, often concentrated around practical landing places, working quays and sheltered access points.
Research contained within the Salcombe Conservation Area Appraisal suggests that one such group existed around Orestone and probably included the Commercial Inn and its neighbouring cottages.
This means the inn may not simply be one of Salcombe’s oldest surviving pubs. It may stand within one of the town’s earliest recognisable settlement clusters.
That changes how the building should be understood.
The inn was not added later to an already thriving tourist town. It belonged to the waterfront community from which Salcombe itself developed.
Nearby buildings now form a designated historic group comprising The Ferry Inn, Ferry Cottage, Orestone Steps, the Old Watch House and neighbouring properties in Fore Street.
Seen together, they preserve the shape of an older Salcombe: tightly built, steeply layered and orientated towards the water.
Why an Inn Was Needed Beside the Salcombe Ferry
Before modern roads, private cars and reliable public transport, crossing an estuary could be a substantial interruption to a journey.
Ferries depended on tides, weather, daylight, boat availability and the judgement of the ferryman. Travellers might arrive early and wait. Others could miss the final crossing and require food or accommodation for the night.
An inn beside the ferry therefore served a clear purpose.
It offered shelter, refreshment, information and perhaps overnight lodging. It also became an informal waiting room and meeting place where passengers, sailors and local residents crossed paths.
This tradition can be seen elsewhere in Devon and Cornwall, where passage houses and ferry inns developed beside important river crossings.
At Salcombe, the ferry remains remarkably central to the experience of the town. The modern passenger service crosses to East Portlemouth, avoiding a lengthy journey by road around the estuary.
Its Salcombe landing remains beside The Ferry Inn.
The vessels have changed. The clothing, luggage and reasons for travelling have changed. Yet the relationship between pub, steps and ferry survives.
Few historic inns retain such an obvious connection to the activity that gave them their modern name.
Before The Ferry Inn: The Commercial Inn
For much of its documented history, the pub was known not as The Ferry Inn but as the Commercial Inn.
The older name places the building within the working life of nineteenth-century Salcombe.
“Commercial” was not an attempt to sound fashionable. It described an establishment associated with business, travel and trade.
Salcombe was then a maritime town of shipowners, mariners, shipbuilders, sailmakers, block makers, fishermen, merchants and craftsmen. Its harbour supported coastal trade and an internationally travelling fleet.
The Commercial Inn belonged to that world.
It would have welcomed customers whose concerns were not restaurant bookings or holiday itineraries, but tides, cargoes, vessel movements, weather, wages and the prospects of the next voyage.
The pub’s modern name emphasises its relationship with the ferry. Its original name reminds us that it once stood inside a busy commercial harbour.
Ann Ingram: The Earliest Known Innkeeper
The Ferry Inn’s own history identifies Mrs Ann Ingram as its earliest known licensee in 1842.
However, Robson’s Directory of 1839 lists:
Ann Ingram — Commercial Inn
That currently takes the documented history of its innkeepers back at least three additional years.
The entry is brief, but valuable.
Trade directories were practical publications rather than family histories. They recorded the people whose occupations and businesses mattered to a town’s commercial life.
Ann Ingram’s inclusion confirms that a woman was running the Commercial Inn by 1839, during a period when Salcombe’s shipping fleet was expanding rapidly.
The same directory described Salcombe Harbour as one of the finest in England and reported that local shipping had increased significantly during the previous four years.
Ann Ingram was therefore not managing a sleepy coastal tavern.
She was running an inn in an expanding port at a time of commercial confidence and maritime activity.
Her role would have required far more than pulling ale. An innkeeper managed supplies, rooms, staff, accounts, licensing obligations and the behaviour of customers. In a harbour community, she may also have provided meals and accommodation at irregular hours determined by tides and arriving vessels.
That the earliest currently identified publican was a woman is one of the most compelling details in The Ferry Inn’s story.
From Ann Ingram to Anna Cole
By 1878, the Commercial Inn was under another female licensee.
White’s Directory records:
Cole, Miss Anna — victualler, Commercial Inn, Orestone
The wording is important. Anna Cole was specifically described as a victualler, meaning she was licensed to sell alcohol and was formally responsible for the premises.
The directory places her within an extraordinary list of Orestone neighbours and customers.
Nearby were mariners, a pilot, tradespeople and the Coastguard Station. Salcombe also contained customs officials, shipowners, boatbuilders and numerous master mariners.
Anna Cole’s Commercial Inn stood within a concentrated maritime neighbourhood.
The presence of another woman as licensee also suggests that the history of Salcombe’s inns cannot be told solely through the stories of male sailors and publicans. Women were central to the management of lodging houses, shops, inns and family businesses throughout the town.
The Cole Family and the Commercial Inn in the 1920s
A later account provides one of the most atmospheric descriptions yet discovered.
Writing about Salcombe during the 1920s, Alan Rodick recalled:
At the Commercial, Miss Cole and her mother ran a very respectable establishment with rooms for travellers.
It is a short recollection, but it gives us several important clues.
First, the pub was still remembered as the Commercial during the interwar period.
Second, it offered rooms to travellers, supporting the idea that it functioned as more than a drinking house.
Third, it was associated with the Cole family many decades after Anna Cole’s appearance in the 1878 directory.
We need to be careful here. The account does not provide the first names of the Miss Cole or her mother, and we cannot automatically assume the daughter mentioned in the 1920s was Anna Cole herself.
Nevertheless, the evidence points towards a lengthy family association with the inn and raises an obvious avenue for future research.
Census records, electoral registers, licensing registers and probate documents may allow the exact Cole family succession to be reconstructed.
What already emerges is an appealing image of the Commercial as a respectable waterside inn where travellers could obtain a room while Salcombe itself began evolving into a holiday destination.
A Known Timeline of Commercial Inn Landlords and Licensees
The complete succession of landlords has not yet been established, but the online evidence currently supports the following partial timeline:
1839 — Ann Ingram
Named at the Commercial Inn in Robson’s Directory.
1842 — Mrs Ann Ingram
Recognised by The Ferry Inn’s own history as its earliest previously known licensee.
1878 — Miss Anna Cole
Listed by White’s Directory as the licensed victualler of the Commercial Inn at Orestone.
1920s — Miss Cole and her mother
Remembered by Alan Rodick as running a respectable establishment offering rooms to travellers.
This is not yet a complete list. In particular, significant gaps remain between the Ingram and Cole periods, and between the interwar period and the modern Ferry Inn.
However, it gives us the beginnings of a human history rather than merely a building chronology.
The Coastguard Station Beside the Commercial Inn
White’s Directory of 1878 lists the Coastguard Station at Orestone directly alongside Anna Cole’s Commercial Inn.
The proximity was physical as well as administrative.
The Old Watch House and other surviving buildings around Orestone preserve the memory of the coastguard presence in this part of Salcombe.
This placed the Commercial Inn beside a curious intersection of hospitality and authority.
Inside, sailors, travellers and townspeople ate, drank and exchanged news.
Nearby, coastguards watched vessels and monitored the harbour approaches.
The station formed part of the nineteenth-century effort to improve coastal security and suppress smuggling, although coastguards also undertook lifesaving duties and provided trained manpower around Britain’s shores.
For the Commercial Inn, the coastguard station would have brought customers, activity and gossip. It may also have encouraged a certain discretion among anyone whose maritime business was less than legitimate.
Smuggling and The Ferry Inn: What Can Honestly Be Said?
It is tempting to describe every historic Devon pub as a smugglers’ haunt.
The reality requires more care.
Smuggling was unquestionably part of South Devon’s history. Tea, tobacco, brandy and other heavily taxed goods were brought ashore illegally around the coast, particularly during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Salcombe’s creeks, coves and complicated shoreline provided opportunities for illicit landing and concealment.
However, no evidence uncovered during this research proves that smugglers regularly met inside the Commercial Inn or used the building to store contraband.
The responsible conclusion is more nuanced.
The inn stood at a major waterfront crossing in a harbour where customs officers, coastguards, sailors and fishermen operated. It would have heard stories and rumours. People involved in every part of Salcombe’s maritime life would have passed nearby.
The coastguard presence at Orestone also shows that the authorities considered this part of the harbour strategically useful.
But until a newspaper report, court record or customs document directly connects the inn with a smuggling case, any claim that it was a smugglers’ pub should be treated as folklore rather than established fact.
Sometimes admitting what history has not proven makes the genuine discoveries more credible.
The Commercial Inn as a Place of Inquests
Victorian inns were not used solely for drinking, dining and accommodation.
They frequently served as convenient public rooms for auctions, club meetings, official hearings and coroners’ inquests.
In 1887, an inquest was held at the Commercial Inn concerning the death of Rosaline Symons, who had died following an illness.
The subject was sombre, but the setting was typical of the period.
A local inn provided a room large enough for witnesses, officials and a jury. It was accessible, publicly known and capable of supplying refreshments during proceedings.
This small newspaper record expands our understanding of the Commercial Inn.
It was not simply one of the famous inns of Salcombe. It was part of the civic infrastructure of the town—a place where formal community business could be conducted when purpose-built public facilities were limited.
Jack B. Yeats and the Commercial Inn, Salcombe
Perhaps the most surprising discovery lies not in a Devon archive, but in the National Gallery of Ireland.
Its Jack B. Yeats archive contains an item catalogued as:
Commercial Inn, Salcombe
Jack B. Yeats was an important Irish artist and illustrator, as well as the brother of poet W. B. Yeats. The archive item appears among material associated with his travels in the Salcombe and South Devon area around 1902.
At this stage, the online catalogue information does not tell us enough to say confidently whether the item is a detailed drawing of the inn, a written notation, a preliminary sketch or another form of visual record.
Nevertheless, its existence is significant.
It demonstrates that the Commercial Inn caught the attention of a nationally important artist during the early twentieth century.
This could become one of the article’s strongest elements if the National Gallery of Ireland can supply further catalogue details or a permitted reproduction.
A historic Jack B. Yeats image of the Commercial Inn would give The Ferry Inn a cultural connection that appears to be almost entirely absent from its modern public history.
A Death Recorded at the Commercial Inn in 1920
Genealogical records also show that Bernard Scruton Francis died at the Commercial Inn in April 1920, aged forty-seven.
We do not yet know from the freely available record why he was there, how long he had been staying, or the circumstances of his death.
It would be irresponsible to invent a story around the event.
But it reinforces the description of the Commercial as an establishment with rooms for travellers and demonstrates that people were lodging there during the early twentieth century.
His death certificate, newspaper reports or probate documents may reveal more.
This is another example of how a single archival reference can open an entirely new research path.
The Commercial Inn During Salcombe’s Transition to Tourism
The early twentieth century marked a turning point for Salcombe.
The maritime trades that had sustained the town during the schooner era had declined. At the same time, improved travel and a growing enthusiasm for coastal holidays brought new visitors to the harbour.
The Commercial Inn was well placed to adapt.
Its rooms could serve travellers rather than commercial sailors. Its waterfront location increasingly became an attraction in its own right. The view that had once allowed innkeepers to watch working vessels now appealed to holidaymakers.
Between the world wars, Salcombe developed more clearly as a sailing and holiday destination.
The Commercial’s identity gradually changed with it.
At some point, the name Ferry Inn came to replace the older Commercial Inn. The exact date of that transition has not yet been confirmed through an authoritative record.
Finding the first directory, newspaper advertisement or licensing notice using “Ferry Inn” would allow us to date one of the most important changes in the building’s history.
The View That Changed Meaning
The view from The Ferry Inn has always been valuable, but not always for the same reason.
For an eighteenth-century innkeeper, a clear view of the estuary meant watching approaching boats, customers and changing weather.
For nineteenth-century merchants and sailors, it meant observing the harbour on which their livelihoods depended.
For coastguards, it offered surveillance.
For travellers, it showed the route they had crossed or were waiting to take.
For today’s customers, the same outlook offers tranquillity.
The water is filled with ferries, sailing boats, paddleboards and leisure craft. East Portlemouth’s wooded shore and sandy beaches provide one of Salcombe’s best-known views.
The scenery did not suddenly become beautiful when tourism arrived.
What changed was how people valued it.
A working view became a leisure view, and the inn’s practical waterfront position became its greatest commercial attraction.
Why The Ferry Inn Is One of the Best Pubs in Salcombe
Searches for the best pubs in Salcombe usually focus on food, atmosphere, beer gardens and harbour views.
The Ferry Inn has a powerful advantage because its setting cannot be manufactured.
Its terrace does not merely overlook the water from a distance. It sits beside the historic ferry steps, at the edge of the estuary and within a group of buildings shaped by Salcombe’s maritime past.
The modern pub is associated with Palmers Brewery, whose Bridport brewery has operated on the same site since 1794.
Today, customers visit for food, beer, live events and the view across to East Portlemouth.
Yet history adds something that ratings and menus cannot measure.
Sitting outside The Ferry Inn means occupying a place where Salcombe residents have gathered for generations. The estuary remains in motion. The ferry still arrives. Conversations continue beside water that has witnessed centuries of departures and returns.
That continuity is why The Ferry Inn deserves to be considered not simply one of the best pubs in Salcombe, but one of the town’s defining places.
Famous Inns of Salcombe and Their Different Characters
Salcombe has several historic pubs, each with its own relationship to the town.
The Victoria Inn occupies a central position in Fore Street and has long been part of Salcombe’s social life.
The Fortescue Inn represents another established name in the heart of the town.
The Ferry Inn is different because its identity is inseparable from the estuary crossing outside.
It is both an inn and a landmark.
Among the famous inns of Salcombe, it possesses perhaps the clearest surviving relationship between a pub and the historical activity that shaped it.
The ferry did not merely supply the pub’s name.
It explains why an inn was valuable in this exact position in the first place.
The Ferry Inn Today
The pub underwent a substantial refurbishment in 2018, bringing a new interior while retaining its historic waterfront setting.
It continues to host events and serves food alongside Palmers ales. Its large waterside terrace remains its most recognisable feature.
The passenger ferry continues to collect and land customers beside the pub, linking Salcombe with East Portlemouth and its beaches.
That means the old relationship survives in a direct and practical form.
Someone can still step off the ferry, climb Orestone Steps and enter the inn almost immediately—just as generations of travellers did before them.
Very few hospitality businesses can claim such uninterrupted relevance to the location around them.
A Partial Timeline of The Ferry Inn and Commercial Inn
Eighteenth century
The building originates in the eighteenth century. The modern pub dates it to 1739.
1839
Ann Ingram is listed at the Commercial Inn in Robson’s Directory.
1842
Ann Ingram appears in the pub’s own historical account as its earliest previously known licensee.
1878
Miss Anna Cole is recorded as victualler of the Commercial Inn at Orestone. The Coastguard Station is operating nearby.
1887
An inquest into the death of Rosaline Symons is held at the Commercial Inn.
1902
Jack B. Yeats visits the Salcombe area. An archival item titled “Commercial Inn, Salcombe” survives in the National Gallery of Ireland.
1920
Bernard Scruton Francis dies at the Commercial Inn while apparently staying or residing there.
1920s
Alan Rodick remembers Miss Cole and her mother running the Commercial as a respectable establishment with rooms for travellers.
Interwar period
Salcombe increasingly develops as a holiday and sailing destination.
Twentieth century
The Commercial Inn eventually becomes known as The Ferry Inn. The precise date remains to be established.
1974
The Ferry Inn is formally listed at Grade II.
2018
The pub undergoes an extensive refurbishment.
Today
The Ferry Inn continues to trade beside the passenger ferry landing, serving residents, sailors and visitors overlooking East Portlemouth.
Frequently Asked Questions About The Ferry Inn, Salcombe
How old is The Ferry Inn in Salcombe?
The pub dates its building to 1739. Historic England identifies it as eighteenth century in origin with later alterations.
Was The Ferry Inn always called The Ferry Inn?
No. For much of its documented history it was called the Commercial Inn.
Who was the earliest known landlord of The Ferry Inn?
The earliest currently identified innkeeper is Ann Ingram, listed at the Commercial Inn in Robson’s Directory of 1839.
Who ran the Commercial Inn after Ann Ingram?
White’s Directory records Miss Anna Cole as its licensed victualler in 1878. A later account remembers Miss Cole and her mother running the establishment during the 1920s.
Did The Ferry Inn offer accommodation?
A recollection of Salcombe in the 1920s describes the Commercial Inn as offering rooms for travellers. A death was also registered at the inn in 1920.
Is The Ferry Inn a listed building?
Yes. The Ferry Inn was designated a Grade II listed building in 1974.
Was The Ferry Inn connected with smugglers?
Smuggling was widespread around the South Devon coast, and the inn stood beside an important harbour crossing and coastguard station. However, no direct evidence currently proves that the inn itself was used by smugglers.
Why is it called The Ferry Inn?
The pub stands beside the ferry steps used by the passenger service between Salcombe and East Portlemouth.
Is The Ferry Inn one of the best pubs in Salcombe?
It is regularly recommended for its waterside position and estuary views. Its history and direct relationship with the ferry also make it one of Salcombe’s most distinctive pubs.
Did Jack B. Yeats visit The Ferry Inn?
The National Gallery of Ireland holds a Jack B. Yeats archive item titled “Commercial Inn, Salcombe,” associated with his work in the area. Further archive research is needed to establish its precise content.
More Than One of Salcombe’s Best Pubs
The Ferry Inn is easy to enjoy without knowing any of this history.
The view alone is enough.
But places become more meaningful when we understand the lives that passed through them.
Ann Ingram managing a busy Commercial Inn in 1839.
Anna Cole serving sailors and travellers while coastguards watched the harbour nearby.
A Victorian coroner gathering witnesses for an inquest.
Jack B. Yeats pausing to record the building during his travels.
Miss Cole and her mother offering respectable rooms to interwar visitors.
Each fragment adds another human layer.
Today, the ferry still crosses the estuary. Customers still climb the steps. People still gather beside the water to eat, drink, exchange news and watch boats arrive.
The purpose has softened, but the pattern remains.
That is what makes The Ferry Inn more than a pub with one of the best views in Salcombe.
It is part of the harbour’s memory.
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