1 EAGLETON NOTES: The Bridge House, Ambleside

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Monday 25 July 2011

The Bridge House, Ambleside

On the way back from Exeter CJ and I stayed overnight in Ambleside (a fact I've already mentioned in relation to food!).  When I wasa youngster the family spent many holidays in the Lake District and one of the most memorable was in Ambleside!  One of Ambleside's most intriguing buildings is the Bridge House.  Bridge House was built over Stock Ghyll more than 300 years ago probably as a summer house and apple store for Ambleside Hall. The building was purchased by local people in 1926 and given to the National Trust. It is now used as an information centre for the National Trust.  Why was it built over the Ghyll?  Apparently to avoid land tax.

I looked out some photos I took back in the 1960s:



Here are some I took last week:




So far as the house is concerned it is no surprise, as it is owned by the National Trust, that it appears not to have altered in the last 50 or so years except that the doors are now green and not white.  Actually I think I preferred the white.

5 comments:

  1. I love really old buildings; I personally have seen very few.

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  2. Very picturesque! I wonder what it would be like to look out and see that river high & really running from those windows?
    Love the whole look of this.

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  3. It lookls from your sixties photo as if you could photograph it from the other side but I seemed to think you couldn't get around there in those days - was the white bench on private property then, can you recall?

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  4. Yes CJ I think that the white bench was on private property back in the day (to use the current phrase).

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