Folly Bridge is a Grade II listed building in the Lake District National Park local planning authority area, England. First listed on 8 August 1985. Footbridge.
Folly Bridge
- WRENN ID
- rusted-timber-thunder
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Lake District National Park
- Constituency
- Penrith and Solway MP: Markus Campbell-Savours (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 8 August 1985
- Type
- Footbridge
- Address
- Folly Bridge, Borrowdale, Cumberland
- OS grid reference
- NY 250 138
- Coordinates
- 54.51459, -3.15909
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Folly Bridge is a footbridge built in 1781, as noted on a stone inscription on the east face, which states that it was constructed at the expense of John Braithwaite of Seatoller by Thomas Hayton and Richard Bowness. The inscription reflects on the builder's lack of family, expressing a sentiment about the folly of the endeavor. The bridge is made of slate rubble and features a narrow single-span design with a humped-back profile. It has slate voussoirs beneath a solid parapet topped with slab coping. The total cost of construction was £25.
Local climate
Folly Bridge sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,500 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 98% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 97% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 53 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 94% of listed buildings. Of these, 31 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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