Every November, the Bridge Inn fills up with people competing to tell the most convincing lie in Britain. The World's Biggest Liar competition happens here, and the rules are simple: five minutes to spin the most outrageous tall tale, and the winner takes a trophy and the title. Politicians and lawyers are barred from entering, on the grounds that they are already professionals in the field.
The competition honours Will Ritson (1808–1890), the first landlord of the Wasdale Head Inn up the valley, who became famous across the country for stories he clearly made up. His turnips were so large that Wasdale locals hollowed them out into cow sheds and used them as sheep pens. His Herdwick sheep could run with their legs tied. Victorian tourists loved it, and the village has been keeping the tradition going ever since.
The Bridge Inn itself is a traditional Lakeland inn, and it takes the food seriously. The kitchen does a steak and ale pie built from beef slow-cooked in Jennings ale, alongside burgers, salads, pizzas and a blackboard of daily specials. Sunday brings a carvery from noon to three, with a choice of meats. Food runs from noon to eight every day and the bar stays open until eleven. One review sums it up as an "excellent reputation for good home cooked meals with hearty portions," which is the kind of praise that sounds earned rather than supplied.
The beer matches the effort. Jennings Cumberland Ale is on tap all year, and there are six or more changing handpulled ales beyond it. Dogs are welcome in the bar and dining area, and the bar is a spacious one.
Santon Bridge is a small hamlet, and the pub is more or less the whole of it. The village bridges the River Irt where it runs through low farmland, with the western fells rising to the east. There is no church and there are no shops. What there is, is a position.
That position is the reason to come. The road to Wasdale Head passes straight through the hamlet, which makes this a gateway to some of the most serious walking in the Lake District — Scafell Pike and Great Gable are both up that way, about five miles northeast. If you want something gentler, there is a flat riverside walk along the Irt, and a two-mile stroll through farmland to Nether Wasdale.
Getting here means driving. There is no railway and no bus service, and the only approach is by minor roads off the A595 coast road. That keeps the numbers down.
Which is, in the end, why the lying competition works. You need a certain kind of village to keep a straight face while a room full of people try to out-fib each other, and Santon Bridge has always been that kind of village.
