Ferry Boat Inn , Felixstowe

[Snowgoose-1]

One of my favorite over night's at the Ferry.
Seems that some are still suffering after Covid, plus, a very poor spring and summer this year.

Landlords 'deeply saddened' to be closing pub doors after over 20 years.

 

[Cantata]

That’s a shame. Always busy when I’ve been there, not made it for a couple of years though.

 

[Leighb]

That’s sad, used to be two pubs there, now none. Only options are caffs. The one by the river not too bad, the other was where we had certainly the foulest coffee I have ever encountered.

 

[Bigplumbs]

I think they are giving up the lease. It might remain as a pub if others take it on. Either way in my view pubs are doomed. They have priced themselves out of the market. £4.50 - £5.00 for a pint is simply too much. We used to go to pubs a lot. Not now maybe twice a year

 

[PaulRainbow]

I think they are giving up the lease. It might remain as a pub if others take it on. Either way in my view pubs are doomed. They have priced themselves out of the market. £4.50 - £5.00 for a pint is simply too much. We used to go to pubs a lot. Not now maybe twice a year

Vodka and coke (not even real Coke) in the Last Anchor, Ipswich Marina, cost me £8.50 ! Two of those and i can buy a 1 litre bottle.

 

[sailorman]

Vodka and coke (not even real Coke) in the Last Anchor, Ipswich Marina, cost me £8.50 ! Two of those and i can buy a 1 litre bottle.

the rent will be due 01/01/2025payable in advancewhere is DOM

 

[Frayed Knot]

All very sad; pubs are a part of our national identity.
Of course, sometimes they are simply ripping us off just because they can but many are just fighting a losing battle against impossibly high overheads.
When the lease for the nearby (as the boat sails) Ramsholt Arms was being offered a few years ago the proposed annual rent was £55k - one has to assume the new operator managed to negotiate a more affordable sum. How on earth could a small business make a clear profit of £1,000 per week just to pay the rent? That’s before even thinking about business rates, heating, staff costs etc.

 

[Seashoreman]

All very sad; pubs are a part of our national identity.
Of course, sometimes they are simply ripping us off just because they can but many are just fighting a losing battle against impossibly high overheads.
When the lease for the nearby (as the boat sails) Ramsholt Arms was being offered a few years ago the proposed annual rent was £55k - one has to assume the new operator managed to negotiate a more affordable sum. How on earth could a small business make a clear profit of £1,000 per week just to pay the rent? That’s before even thinking about business rates, heating, staff costs etc.

Yes and the Ramsholt Arms must be one of the most isolated pubs in Suffolk. Down a track off very rural winding country roads. I know they have private functions/parties occasionally but it is almost impossible to book a local taxi if needed and the cost would be incredible.
With regards to rental costs, there is a 4 bedroom house advertised local to me for £4,300 a month. Nothing special, tiny rear garden, on main road into town, minimal parking. Great Expectations, greed or money to burn?

 

[Frayed Knot]

Yes and the Ramsholt Arms must be one of the most isolated pubs in Suffolk. Down a track off very rural winding country roads. I know they have private functions/parties occasionally but it is almost impossible to book a local taxi if needed and the cost would be incredible.
With regards to rental costs, there is a 4 bedroom house advertised local to me for £4,300 a month. Nothing special, tiny rear garden, on main road into town, minimal parking. Great Expectations, greed or money to burn?

Pure greed (estate agent driven for domestic properties) & I say that as a long term landlord.

 

[Debennut]

Yes and the Ramsholt Arms must be one of the most isolated pubs in Suffolk. Down a track off very rural winding country roads. I know they have private functions/parties occasionally but it is almost impossible to book a local taxi if needed and the cost would be incredible.
With regards to rental costs, there is a 4 bedroom house advertised local to me for £4,300 a month. Nothing special, tiny rear garden, on main road into town, minimal parking. Great Expectations, greed or money to burn?

Years ago the pub handed our rear screen stickers (remember those?) "We managed to find the Ramsholt Arms"

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Yes and the Ramsholt Arms must be one of the most isolated pubs in Suffolk. Down a track off very rural winding country roads. I know they have private functions/parties occasionally but it is almost impossible to book a local taxi if needed and the cost would be incredible.
With regards to rental costs, there is a 4 bedroom house advertised local to me for £4,300 a month. Nothing special, tiny rear garden, on main road into town, minimal parking. Great Expectations, greed or money to burn?

Sounds like the kind of place only a geologist would find! Your first field lessons are the use of a geological hammer and how to find a pub in apparently wild country. And I have been in a pub where every eye turned when a stranger walked in.

 

[PeterWright]

Hi AP,

If you don't kow the Ramsholt Arms, plan a visit next summer - by river it's easy to find. In fact it's worth taking a few days to explore the Deben estuary, where you will find Ramsholt as the first place on your starboard hand on your way upriver after entering between Felixstowe Ferry and Bawdsey, the home of radar. Don't be put off by tales of horror about the Deben bar, it's well buoyed and excellent charmless are to be found on Dick Holness' East Coast Pilot website together with excellent drone stills and videos at low water taken by John Ranson, who sails a Moody out of Felixstowe Ferry. Believe these information sources rather than any printed or electronic charts you can buy as the published stuff is often out of date.

Rarely a problem picking up a mooring in Ramsholt, just call the harbour master who will ask fra contribution t the RNLI. Moorings in Waldringfield courtesy of the boatyard, I understand LOA not greater than 35 foot and the Tide Mill marina in Woodbridge where you need to be near HW to get in and out - the entrance dries higher than Titchmarsh. A pleasant anchorage at the Rocks, between Ramsholt and Waldringfield, but it gets busy on a sunny weekend.

Peter.

 

[RivalRedwing]

Sounds like the kind of place only a geologist would find! Your first field lessons are the use of a geological hammer and how to find a pub in apparently wild country. And I have been in a pub where every eye turned when a stranger walked in.

A poor Crag exposure 50m up river, moderate shark tooth finds at the Rocks (500m up river) with London Clay overlain by Crag...

 

[Seashoreman]

A pleasurable mooring and pint at the Ramsholt Arms.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

A poor Crag exposure 50m up river, moderate shark tooth finds at the Rocks (500m up river) with London Clay overlain by Crag...

All a bit squishy for my tastes!

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Hi AP,

If you don't kow the Ramsholt Arms, plan a visit next summer - by river it's easy to find. In fact it's worth taking a few days to explore the Deben estuary, where you will find Ramsholt as the first place on your starboard hand on your way upriver after entering between Felixstowe Ferry and Bawdsey, the home of radar. Don't be put off by tales of horror about the Deben bar, it's well buoyed and excellent charmless are to be found on Dick Holness' East Coast Pilot website together with excellent drone stills and videos at low water taken by John Ranson, who sails a Moody out of Felixstowe Ferry. Believe these information sources rather than any printed or electronic charts you can buy as the published stuff is often out of date.

Rarely a problem picking up a mooring in Ramsholt, just call the harbour master who will ask fra contribution t the RNLI. Moorings in Waldringfield courtesy of the boatyard, I understand LOA not greater than 35 foot and the Tide Mill marina in Woodbridge where you need to be near HW to get in and out - the entrance dries higher than Titchmarsh. A pleasant anchorage at the Rocks, between Ramsholt and Waldringfield, but it gets busy on a sunny weekend.

Peter.

I have been up the Deben to Woodbridge, and didn't find the entrance too difficult.

 

[jezjez]

Entering the Deben is a rite of passage for the east coast sailor. My mooring is at Ramsholt and we are a very welcoming bunch. (No facilities, though, except beer).
Felixstowe Ferry and Woodbridge have more, fuel and provisions. The entrance is well-marked and the difficult bit is only a short section.
We locals don’t have any real issues with it. No, It’s the entrance to the Alde that we’re scared of!

 

[PeterWright]

Hi AP,

So you know the way. Next trip that way, take a dinghy with you and take the time to stop off at Waldringfield to visit the Maybush, haunt of cartoonist Giles who did much of his work in his caravan studio, parked in what now is the pub car park, overlooking his yacht moored under the cliff; at the rocks just for fun; at Ramsholt to visit both the RA and the church with its unique elliptical plan tower and lastly at Felixstowe Ferry, where you will hopefully find the Ferry Boat Inn still trading but under new management. From FF you can even take the ferry across to Bawdsey, with its 3.5 pairs of semis, to visit Bawdsey Manor and learn of the birth of radar, but check opening times before doing this.

Peter.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I have been up the Deben to Woodbridge, and didn't find the entrance too difficult.

Actually I had more worry leaving - after following the nicely marked channel from Woodbridge, I lost it and crossed the Horse Sand, fortunately at a state of tide when there was enough water for me! But I'd got used to a lack of moorings indicating the channel, and failed to check the excellent chart in the ECP! Also, there was a strong breaking sea on the seaward side of the banks at the entrance, which was a bit scary.

I first sailed yachts on the Humber, so I am used to the idea that you follow the buoys, not the chart. The chart is a useful guide to the configuration of the sea bed, but the buoys tell you where the channel is. And if you do that, and of course check the tides, places like the Deben are not that difficult, being well marked. I wouldn't care to do it without the buoys!

 

[Leighb]

You aren't the first and won't be the last to make that mistake, it is even more tempting when leaving against the tide which runs very fast in the channel, but you need to be very sure of yourself to cut through that beguilingly clear area to keep out of the tide. At least you got away with it, many haven't.