King John's Hunting Lodge, Local museum in medieval merchant house at Axbridge, England
King John's Hunting Lodge is a timber-framed medieval building on a corner of the town square in Axbridge, Somerset. The structure rises three stories high with overhanging upper floors and now operates as a local history museum open to visitors.
The building was put up around 1460 as the home and workplace of a well-off wool merchant in what was then an active trading town. Over the following centuries it became an inn before eventually being turned into a museum for the public.
The name suggests a royal connection, but the building was home to wealthy wool merchants who traded from this very spot. The rooms inside show how a prosperous merchant family arranged their living and working spaces in a medieval English town.
The building stands right on the town square and is easy to find on foot from any direction in the center. The interior rooms are narrow and the ceilings are low, so visitors who have difficulty with tight spaces should come prepared.
The original oak staircase from the 15th century is still in place and gives a rare look at how medieval carpenters worked with wood. The building's name is also misleading, since King John died more than 2 centuries before it was built.
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