Old Ferry Inn and Ferryside, Bodinnick

There has been a ferry crossing between Fowey and Bodinnick since at least 14th century and it was an important one as it was on the main southerly route through Cornwall.  It is quite likely that there was an inn in Bodinnick from then to give shelter to travellers.  The existing Old Ferry Inn  dates back to the 17th century  as do many of the old fisherman and shipbuilders cottages. The ferry and the Ferry Inn were often under the same management.  In the 19th century the Ferry Inn was run for many years by Mrs Jane Hayes.

Ferryside, the large building on the water's edge beside the ferry, was originally a shipyard. The first shipbuilder noted there was  John Marks who ran the shipyard from 1826 to 1846 and built the 60-ton sloop Abeona.  The shipyard was later taken over by Nicholas and Joseph Butson and it is here that they built Rippling Wave, a 130-ton schooner and the first ship to carry china clay from the Carn point docks to Genoa in 1869. With the decline in wooden shipbuilding the property was sold and became a private house.  It was initially named Swiss Cottage and it was this that was seen by the du Maurier family in the 1920s when they were looking for a holiday home. It was here in the room above the figurehead that Daphne wrote her first novel The Loving Spirit.  The figurehead is from the Polruan built ship Jane Slade which was the inspiration for the novel.

Research Alison Fogg

Sources: Helen Doe A Fair and Commodious Haven: The History of the Harbour of Fowey. (Truro: Truran, 2010); Helen Doe , Jane Slade of Polruan (Truro: Truran, 2002); John Keast, The Story of Fowey,( Dyllansow Truran, 1987); C. H. Ward-Jackson, Ships and Shipbuilders of a Westcountry Seaport: Fowey 1786-1939 (Truro: Twelveheads Press, 1986).