Pullwood Bay Estate History

The house at Pullwood Bay was built in 1891 for Sir William Crossley, as his Lake District residence. Sir William lived mainly at Glenfield, Dunham Massey, Cheshire and was one of the two Crossley brothers who gave their name to Crossley cars. They were engineers in Manchester who also made the famous trucks, buses and tanks. Sir William was also an MP and director of the Manchester Ship Canal.

The architect who designed Pullwood Bay was George Faulkner Armitage, of Altrincham Cheshire. Mr Armitage carried out repairs and extensive changes to Bramall Hall, Stockport, and it is for this reason that he was given the job of designing Pullwood Bay. Sir William saw George Armitage’s work at Bramall Hall and asked Mr Armitage to model Pullwood Bay on the Elizabethan style Bramall Hall. The Gate House and Boat House also follow this elegant style.

During Sir William’s day many boating parties were held on the quieter waters in front of this majestic house, utilising the jetty and the lake shore gardens. In fact, Sir William sponsored one of the races of the Summer Regatta, and this race would take place directly in front of Pullwood Bay, with boats racing round the little island seen from the jetty – Seamew Crag.

When Sir William Crossley died in 1911, Lady Crossley became an infrequent visitor to the estate and it remained mostly unoccupied for over twenty years. During this time it was purchased by a Windermere building firm, but was not used by them.

Meanwhile, Hubert Butler and his wife Nita were running a boys’ school in Huyton, Liverpool. To avoid the increasing risk of air raids during the war years, Hubert Butler moved the school to the Newby Bridge Hotel, at the south end of Windermere. Whilst living in the area Hubert found that Pullwood Bay was available to rent and so Huyton Hill Preparatory School for Boys moved to Pullwood Bay.

The grounds are quite a setting for school days and there have been many accounts of skinny dipping in the lake each morning along with Latin and mathematics being taught in the boat house. Although the school was small, with a maximum of 60 pupils at any one time, it was successful and remained a school for almost 30 years. However, following the death in 1967 of Hubert’s brother Gerald, who was joint Headmaster, Hubert Butler finally closed the school and retired in 1969. Hubert began to convert the school into holiday flats, but died in 1971. A memorial plaque to family members can be found in Wray Church.

As Gerald did not have any family, Hubert’s son Ian took over and continued with the conversion of the holiday apartments, the first being occupied in late 1971. Many ‘old boys’ returned with their families to relax and enjoy the lake, grounds and spectacular views once more. From this point on, Huyton Hill as it had become known since its school days became one of the best kept secrets of the Lake District. Families returned year after year, and not many new visitors discovered this treasured holiday destination.

It was following the sad death of Ian Butler that the property was advertised for sale, the new owners purchasing the property in 2002. As the original name of the house was Pull Wood House the estate was renamed Pullwood Bay, and so began the next chapter of Pullwood Bay’s history!