HISTORY

The Log House was imported by the famous local artist Alfred Heaton Cooper at the turn of the century.
After his student days, Alfred traced Turner's journey setting off to the Norwegian fjords to make his living selling landscape pictures to the European tourists.

Fascinated by the rural life of the people of the Sogne region, Cooper married a local girl and built a studio beside the fjord at Balestrand.
Finding he could not make an adequate living in Norway, he lived partly there and partly in England, returning with his bride in 1894. He settled finally in the Lake District, where wealthy tourists promised a better livelihood.

Originally Cooper rebuilt the red roofed log cabin in Coniston village as a studio causing quite a stir among the people but the tourism there was not sufficient for Alfred to sustain his growing family. More people seemed to be visiting Ambleside than Coniston so the log studio was moved to its present location.

Cooper settled to a life of continuous painting. His wife ran the studio while he explored the Lakeland fells and valleys, finding scenes which inspired him and would appeal to visitors.
Some of his larger original paintings were selling for several thousand pounds, and thousands of reproduction prints of his work were being sold every year from the Grasmere gallery which bears his name.

Over the years, this delightfully idiosyncratic cabin has played may different roles. Besides serving as an artist's studio, it has been shops of various kinds and tea rooms.

Today the Loghouse is the venue for some of the finest food in the country.