Page last updated 31/05/07

St John's in the Vale

Bridge House

Bridge House is located in the heart of St John's in the Vale, 5 km west of Keswick, at OS map reference NY310226. It is approached by a few hundred metres of unsurfaced track and behind the house a path leads steeply up the hillside to St John's chapel. The house now appears to form three weekend cottages but the third is grander than the other two and is probably an early 20^th century addition. At the back of the house Blencathra (or Saddleback) towers over the Greta valley.

Bridge House from the river - the older (?) section is hidden

Thomas Swindle probably bought or rented the house following the death of John Richardson¹, the village schoolmaster and a dialect poet of some fame, in 1886 and moved in with his wife and six children. He lived there until his death in 1909 and his widow remained there until her death in 1919. They are both buried in the churchyard of St John's chapel, along with their daughter-in-law Annie.²

Thomas had been a lead miner in Garrigill, some 50 km to the north west and was probably induced to move by the run down of lead mining that was beginning in that area and the lead mine that was being developed at Wanthwaite on the other side of the valley to Bridge House. However by 1893 he was in business as a coal merchant.

Thomas's son, also named Thomas, remained in the area and was himself buried at St John's in 1932. His widow Edith survived him by 31 years.   Note 1. John Richardson, who was originally a mason by trade, rebuilt the chapel and the vicarage before becoming schoolmaster! Note 2. Thomas, Ellen and Annie's grave is marked on the burial plan of 1946 but the grave marker, if any, has disappeared.

The chapel at St John's in the Vale, rebuilt 1845.

Yew Tree

Yew Tree farm is just a couple of hundred metres from Bridge House. Thomas's second cousin George Swindle was living here, or at neighbouring Yew Tree cottage, at the time of his marriage in 1859 but shortly after returned to Keswick..