Broadoaks Country House has two dates worth knowing. The stone house was built in 1836 on a wooded bank of the Trout Beck, the river that drains the Troutbeck valley into Windermere. The Music Room followed in 1905, an oak-panelled room with a vaulted ceiling, designed with inspiration from William Morris. Today the house, a couple of miles north of Windermere in Cumbria, is taken whole for each wedding, and couples marry beside the grand piano in that room, in a glass-roofed Orangery or at a white gazebo on the lawn, before a party that runs to midnight with no sound limiter.
A house of 1836 on the Trout Beck
The Trout Beck rises at about 600 metres between Stony Cove Pike and Thornthwaite Crag on the High Street range and falls some seven miles through the Troutbeck valley before it reaches Windermere. Its name is Old Norse, and documents of 1292 record it as Trutebyk. It is one of the main rivers feeding the lake.
Broadoaks stands on the river’s lower reaches, half a mile up Bridge Lane from the A591 at Troutbeck Bridge, back from the lakeshore and the busier streets of Bowness. The house dates from 1836 and was a private residence before it became a hotel; ivy now covers most of its stone front. An ornate tiered fountain plays at the entrance, and seven acres of landscaped garden and woodland fall away toward the water. From the Upper Lawn the view runs over the Troutbeck hills to Windermere and the Langdale Pikes.
The Music Room and William Morris
The Music Room came almost seventy years later, in 1905. William Morris, the textile designer associated with the Arts and Crafts movement, had died in 1896, so the room carries his influence rather than his hand. Oak panelling lines the walls beneath a painted frieze, the ceiling is vaulted, shell niches flank the chimneypiece and a wood-burner sits in an oak overmantel. A grand piano stands in the deep leaded bay, which looks out to the fountain and the grounds. The glass here, as across the house, is diamond-leaded and clear.
It is the most intimate of the ceremony rooms, taking up to 32 guests. On a larger wedding it becomes a room for drinks and canapés, with the Garden Terrace outside as the alternative when the weather allows.
Three rooms and a lawn for the vows
Broadoaks appears on Westmorland and Furness Council’s directory of premises approved for marriages and civil partnerships. Indoors, ceremonies take place in the Music Room, the Garden Room or the Orangery, a glass-roofed room whose floor-to-ceiling windows look across the river and the woodland, and together they cover anything from around 30 guests to 120. Each licensed room has a PA system with space for musicians, the bar opens for an hour before the ceremony while guests take their seats, and the couple’s entrance is kept out of sight until the walk down the aisle.
Outside, ceremonies are held at the white gazebo at the head of the Upper Lawn, for up to 100 guests, with the gardens around it and the fells beyond. When no one is marrying on it, the same lawn serves as the house’s helipad. The council asks couples to check with any approved venue which outdoor areas its licence covers, a short question to raise at the viewing for anyone set on the lawn.
One house from the first coffee to the last dance
Every wedding has the house to itself: no other guests are booked in for the day. The morning begins in the Wedding Prep Room, open from 9am, with three beauty stations, a full-length mirror and a hook set high enough for the dress. Grooms can arrive from noon, and suppliers can set up from 11am.
Dinner is laid in the Orangery, which seats 120 for the wedding breakfast. Couples choose between three plated courses and a sharing feast, and the house’s own kitchen cooks it; no outside caterer is used, and a tasting of the wedding menu comes with the booking. The kitchen is run by head chef Lawrence Henry, whose menu at the Beatrix Restaurant is built on produce from Cumbrian suppliers, and the afternoon teas are baked in house by the pastry chef, Kath.
The evening grows to 150 guests. Figgy’s Bar, a dark timber counter under a bay window, is named after the house dog and keeps a local ale and local gins; it can also run a signature cocktail or a gin bar for the night. There is no sound limiter, so a band or DJ can play at full volume, but the evening has a fixed end: the bar closes and the music stops at midnight, with a paid extension to 1am. Sparklers are allowed outside; confetti must be real petals and thrown outdoors; fireworks, fire pits, confetti cannons and smoke machines are not permitted. Dogs are welcome for the ceremony, the drinks and the photographs, then retire to a pet-friendly room before everyone sits down to eat.
Twenty bedrooms, each with a name
The house has 20 bedrooms, individually decorated and named rather than numbered. Sixteen are in the main house. Three garden lodges stand apart from it, each with a corner spa bath, and dogs can stay in them. The honeymoon suite, the Retreat, has two double bedrooms, two bathrooms, spa baths inside and out and a lounge for gathering friends. Walnut is the accessible room, with step-free access, a white super-king four-poster and a Japanese slipper bath; elsewhere there are dark oak four-posters, several of them beside their own fireplace.
On a wedding day the couple decide who sleeps in which room, and the house arranges the stays with the guests directly. The night before can be added for an extra charge when the date allows, and checkout the morning after is 10am, since another wedding party may be arriving.
Troutbeck, Townend and Beatrix Potter’s farm
Further up the valley, Troutbeck village is a conservation area about three miles north of Windermere town. The village is also home to Townend, where the Browne family, local farmers, lived for some four hundred years; the National Trust has owned it since 1948 and it is listed at Grade I. North of the village lies Troutbeck Park, a farm Beatrix Potter bought in 1923 when it risked being sold for development. She bred Herdwick sheep there and left it to the National Trust. The Lake District as a whole has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017.
From the M6, Windermere station or the air
By car, Broadoaks is about 20 minutes from junction 36 of the M6 along the A591, and guests park free overnight. Windermere station, a five-minute taxi ride away, is the end of the branch line from Oxenholme on the West Coast Main Line, and some trains run through to Manchester Airport, about an hour and a half away by road. The 555 bus runs from the station to the foot of Bridge Lane. A helicopter can land by prior arrangement, with an indemnity form completed in advance.
Wedding packages start at £5,600. The full package covers exclusive use of the house and grounds, a drinks reception with canapés, a three-course wedding breakfast with wine, evening food, a private bar until midnight, the honeymoon suite and a wedding coordinator, with an events manager on the day.
The choice that shapes a wedding here is where the vows are made: at the gazebo on the Upper Lawn for up to 100 with the fells behind, beside the piano in the Music Room for 32, or in the Orangery and Garden Room for the larger indoor numbers. Couples who have decided can read the Broadoaks Country House profile, look through other Cumbria wedding venues and check your date.
