The pub, distinctive for its unusual castle turreted appearance, was originally called The George and built in 1814 by William Dobson, the same year that the Welford Arm was completed. The Welford Arm was originally built as a navigable feeder to link Welford and Sulby Reservoirs with the Grand Union Canal. The wharf was used for the unloading and selling of coal and the burning of limestone in kilns (the remains of which can still be seen). It's likely that there was a building here prior to 1814 because it's where the River Avon used to be a ford - and where Welford gets its name - meaning 'Ford with a Spring/Stream'.

Welford was noted in the Domesday Book of 1086 but evidence unearthed in 2016 revealed that Iron Age settlers lived nearby more than 2000 years ago!

In 1894 the pub was taken over by the Gilbert family, whose photographs are displayed on the back wall of the dining room along with some valuation and sale documents from the period. That’s when the castellations were added. After Mr Gilbert's death in 1904 Mrs Gilbert ran both the Wharf Inn and the associated canal business for over 50 years. She ran a fleet of narrowboats, two of which, Gwen Mary and Julie were named after her daughters. Miss Gwen Gilbert lived in the Wharf cottage all her life until she died, aged 90 in 1990. The George Inn became a café in the 1950s but regained its licence in 1970 when the Draper family took over. It's now in the safe hands of Anna and Darren, who have been running it since the Drapers handed it over to them in 2014.