The Hodder Bridge Hotel

The Hodder bridge hotel

The Hodder Bridge Hotel was once a very popular country Inn overlooking the Hodder near the village of Chaigley, It sits next to the Higher Hodder bridge at the foot of Kemple End.

The hotel has now been converted into private houses but was once locally famous, with the views from the dining room over the Hodder, above a sweeping curve of which it sits, a large and ornate ballroom in which tea dances were held, its fine dining menu and a swimming pool for guests counting amongst its attractions.

Fishermen also frequented the hotel, travelling from across the country to fish for Salmon, Trout and Grayling in the Hodder’s widely renowned waters, like other hotels in the area such as the Inn at Whitewell, permits for the river were available at the hotels reception and the hotel became known as one of the best fishing hotels in England.

Derek Oldham

Stonyhurst College is just round the corner too and on the colleges open weekends or when parents were coming to visit their children, the hotel used to get very busy. Tea dances and evening entertainment would be put on and a regular act would be Derek Oldham who was a famous tenor who toured with Gilbert and Sullivan and also the D’oyly Carte Opera Company in the 1930s.

The hotel was also famous for its menu, the owners helped run a poultry farm down the road, fishermen quite often brought their catches back to be prepared and game was bought from nearby Browsholme Hall estate, which meant that guests there were offered very seasonal and fresh food.

In the 60s the hotel gained a reputation as an excellent wedding venue with couples travelling from as far afield as Preston and Skipton, there were several other wedding venues nearby such as the Whitewell and another, long closed, hotel on Waddington fell, called the Moorcock, so the area in general became a wedding destination. This is a reputation that modern venues are currently trying to revive!

The Inn’s fate

As with the Inn at Whitewell, which was for a long while the hotels nearest rival, the siting of the hotel, high on the bank of the Hodder on the outside of a sharp bend in the rivers course, meant the building and its grounds were highly susceptible to erosion when the river was in spate. (The Hodder, despite its name translating as ‘tranquil’, can get very high very quick)

There was several times in the hotel’s history that the owners woke up to find sections of the beer garden had disappeared overnight and extensive work had to be done over the decades to shore up the river bank. The Hodder downstream from the Whitewell is infamous with fly fishermen for being scattered with broken crockery after the kitchen of the Inn fell into the river one stormy night! Luckily no one was in it at the time.

The Hodder bridge hotel traded until 2001 when it was severely damaged by a fire which started in the kitchen, the licensees tried to put it out but the damage was so great it sadly had to close, it was derelict for a few years but is now a series of houses and apartments with amazing views, the original pub sign was still on the front of the building last time I went past though.

A B-H