Pooley Bridge

The bridge that remade the village

The bridge that gives the village its name is made of stainless steel, which is not a sentence you get to write about many Cumbrian villages. It opened on 23 October 2020: a single span of 80 tonnes of steel, 2,000 tonnes of concrete and 650 square metres of local stone, designed by Knight Architects and, as far as anyone can establish, the first stainless steel road bridge in the country. The village produced a commemorative beer, jigsaws and fridge magnets to mark it, which tells you how much the bridge matters here.

It matters because the last one didn't survive. The original stone bridge had stood since 1764, long enough that the village took its name from it — Pooley became Pooley Bridge around 1800. Then at two o'clock on the afternoon of 5 December 2015, Storm Desmond pushed the River Eamont up and over its banks and swept the bridge away. It was one of the defining images of that year's Cumbrian floods. The replacement has no piers in the water, so the river has nothing to catch on next time.

Lake departures and the older village inn

The village sits at the northern foot of Ullswater, the second-largest lake in the Lake District, seven and a half miles of it running south from here. The Eamont drains the lake northward through the village. This is the gateway to the eastern shore, and the pier is where you catch an Ullswater Steamer down to Howtown and Glenridding. The Lady of the Lake has been running that route since 1877.

There are two pubs. The Sun Inn is a Jennings tied house and the older institution, family-run, with four handpulled ales — three Jennings including Cumberland Ale, plus a rotating guest. The kitchen does sandwiches, paninis and jacket potatoes through the afternoon, then grilled steak and venison, steak and Jennings ale pie, scampi and Cumberland sausage in the evening, food available all day from noon. The beer garden is extensive, with a children's play area and views out over the countryside. There's a separate bar for dogs and muddy walkers, and they'll sell you a sausage for the dog.

A smarter inn and three ways on foot

The Crown Inn is the smarter of the two, a boutique inn cooking a seasonally changing menu from scratch with daily specials. It's dog-friendly throughout, and its ales have won awards.

For a walk, Dunmallet is the obvious one — a wooded hill directly above the village, the site of an ancient British hill fort, about twenty minutes up for panoramic views over Ullswater. If you'd rather stay flat, the Ullswater Way shorepath runs south along the lake toward Howtown and Glenridding. Barton Fell, above the east shore, is the moderate middle option.

Reaching the Northern Ullswater Shore

There's no railway; Penrith is the nearest station, about five miles northeast, and you reach the village by car on the B5320 or, in season, on the 508 bus from Penrith. St Paul's, the village church, dates from the nineteenth century.

The community's final word

The whole community was involved in building the new bridge. Then they made jigsaws of it.