Pooley Bridge is a village in the

Eden District Eden is a local government district in Cumbria, England, based at Penrith Town Hall in Penrith. It is named after the River Eden, which flows north through the district toward Carlisle. Its population of 49,777 at the 2001 census, increased ...

of the northwestern English county of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

, within the traditional borders of

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

The village takes its name from a bridge over the

River Eamont The River Eamont is a river in Cumbria, England and one of the major tributaries of the River Eden. The name of the river is from Old English (ēa-gemōt) and is a back formation from Eamont Bridge which means the ''junction of streams.'' T ...

at the northern end of

Ullswater Ullswater is the second largest lake in the English Lake District, being about long and wide, with a maximum depth a little over . It was scooped out by a glacier in the Last Ice Age. Geography It is a typical Lake District "ribbon lake", ...

. The bridge, erected in 1764 and replacing an earlier bridge from the 16th century, collapsed on 6 December 2015 when Cumbria was hit by heavy flooding as a result of

Storm Desmond Storm Desmond was an extratropical cyclone and fourth named storm of the 2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season, notable for directing a plume of moist air, known as an atmospheric river, which brought record amounts of orographic rainfall ...

. A temporary replacement bridge was opened on 20 March 2016. A new stainless steel bridge was lifted into place in May 2020, and opened in October 2020. There is a pier from which ferries (known as the Ullswater 'Steamers') provide connections to Glenridding and Howtown. Pooley Bridge was formerly known as Pooley or Pool How meaning the hill by the pool or stream. The name Pool How was derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

word ''pollr'' plus the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

''haugr'' meaning hill or mound. Pooley is mostly situated in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Barton and Pooley Bridge Barton and Pooley Bridge is a civil parish in Eden District, Cumbria, England. The parish is on the edge of the Lake District National Park, and had a population of 232 according to the 2001 census, increasing slightly to 238 at the 2011 Censu ...

, of which it is the main settlement. The few houses on the northern or

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic counties of England, historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th c ...

side of the bridge are in

Dacre Dacre may refer to: Places *Dacre, Cumbria, England ** Dacre Castle *Dacre, North Yorkshire, England *Dacre, New Zealand, in the Southland Region * Dacre, Ontario, Canada People *Baron Dacre, an English hereditary title *Charlotte Dacre (1782–18 ...

parish.Lake District Lets Go Illustrated details
/ref> The village is popular with tourists, especially during the summer, and has several hotels, guest houses and camping sites.

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Barton
(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page)
Storm Desmond: Pooley Bridge collapses in Cumbria floodsPictures of Pooley Bridge Lake District Walks - Pooley Bridge
Villages in Cumbria Eden District Westmorland {{Cumbria-geo-stub