King John's Hunting Lodge

King John’s Hunting Lodge stands in Axbridge, a Somerset town on the edge of the Mendip Hills. It is a three-storey timber building with overhanging upper floors, set on a corner of the market square. The structure dates from around 1468 and was once filled with shops, workshops and living rooms. A carved king’s head once marked the inn that occupied part of the building, and a replica still hangs outside. The lodge was saved from decay and given to the National Trust in 1971. The lodge is now run as a local museum by Axbridge and District Museum Trust. Exhibits cover geology and history from Neolithic times to the Second World War. A flint flake from Ebbor Gorge shows early human presence, while a Bilbie family clock recalls the town’s clockmakers. Paintings of local scenes and a merchants’ table illustrate everyday life through the centuries. Inside, each floor has a different theme. The ground floor recreates arcaded stalls that once opened onto the street. Upstairs, sixteenth-century window decoration has been restored, though some eighteenth-century windows were removed to achieve this. The building’s single wooden king post supports the floors and overhanging beams, a fine example of medieval carpentry. Visitors can walk through rooms that once housed shops and workshops, seeing how the building has changed over five hundred years.