Local recipes, local produce...

The Old Fire Engine House is a restaurant and art gallery situated just west of the cathedral in an attractive Georgian house with a large walled garden stocked with many old English fruit trees, herbs and flowers.

It was built in the mid 18th Century on the site of a farmhouse which was the home of Dean Tyndell's widow in 1616. Ely's horse-drawn fire engine was kept there at the turn of the century, which can now be seen in a photograph above the fire in the bar.

Ann Jarman continues to run the restaurant having set it up in 1968 with two friends. She worked closely with her husband, Michael Jarman, until he sadly passed away in March 2021. Their aim was to use local, seasonal ingredients and recipes; a concept which is commonplace now, but was relatively unusual fifty years ago.

The restaurant has maintained the feeling of a family home rather than that of a commercial business which is reflected in its work ethos. Four generations of the Fyson family have worked there as cooks; Olive Fyson started with us in 1968 and worked in the kitchen for 30 years. Her daughters Terri, Christine and Jayne all still work with us as does her granddaughter Claire and both Jarman daughters also worked at the Old Fire Engine House until recently.