‘There’ll be kids running round by the river in the sunshine’

Toby Brown, 24, general manager of Britain’s oldest pub, can’t wait for it to come back to life (apart from the girl buried in the bar)

The Ferry Boat is claimed to be the oldest inn in England. There are records that alcohol was sold here from 560AD and we have a grave inside the pub, of a girl called Juliet who died on the 17th of March 1050AD.

People love to drink next to it. This used to be a ferry boat crossing and the village (Holywell, Cambs) slowly grew up around it – so the village owes its existence to the pub.

A pub is somewhere you can come if you’re lonely.

We’ve stayed in touch with our older regulars as much as possible during lockdown, but there’ll be a lot of people desperate to get back to the pub and talk to someone outside their own four walls. That’s what every pub offers. I just can’t wait to see smiles on faces again. As soon as the sun comes out, there’ll be kids running around the beer garden playing down by the river. That whole picture that we’ve lost – it feels like forever – just to see that come back will be amazing.