KENDAL, a parish, in the county of WESTMORLAND, comprising the
incorporated market town of Kirkby-Kendal, the chapelries of Crook,
Grayg Helsington, Hugil, Kentmere, Long Sleddale, Natland, New
Hutton, Over-Staveley, Old Hutton with Holmescales, which last
is a township of the parish of Burton in Kendal, Selside with
Whitwell, Underbarrow with Bradley-field, and Winster, and the
townships of Docker, Kirkland, Lambrigg, Nether
Graveship, Nether Staveley, Patton, Scathwaiterigg-Hay
with Hutton in the Hay, Skelsmergh, Kettle-Strickland,
Strickland-Roger, Whinfell, and a portion of Fawcet-
Forest, in KENDAL ward, and the township of Dilliker
in LONSDALE ward, county of WESTMORLAND, and
containing, exclusively of the chapelry of Winster,
which is returned with Undermilbeck, 17,417 inhabitants,
of which number, 8984 are in the town of Kendal,
23 miles (S.W. by S.) from Appleby, and 262 (N.W.
by N.) from London, on the great north road. This
place, which, from the various relies of antiquity discovered,
was evidently a Roman station, is supposed by
Dr. Gale to have been the Brovonads of Antoninus; but
the correctness of this opinion has been doubted by
other antiquaries. The town, which is the largest in the
county, is very pleasantly situated in a valley on the
western bank of the river Kent, which passes through it,
and over which there are three stone bridges, of three
arches each, one of them erected by the corporation in
1744,. and the others by the county, from one of these
bridges a spacious street leads up a gentle acclivity to
the centre of the town, where it meets another principal
street, a mile in length, called Stramongate, extending
from north to south; from this a third main street
leads down to the water side; these streets, which contain
good houses of hewn freestone, roofed with blue
slate, are intersected at right angles by several narrower
streets, in which the houses are chiefly of rough stone,
plastered, and in the ancient style. The town is well
lighted with gas, but the streets are badly paved with
pebbles; the inhabitants are well supplied with water.
On the west side the view is enriched by a long tier of
gardens and terraces, and ornamented with tall Lombardy
poplars; on the opposite bank of the river are
the ruins of an old castle, the baronial seat of the Lords
of Kendal, and the birthplace of Catherine Parr, the
last queen of Henry VIII.; the remains of this ancient
structure, which was probably raised on the site of the
Roman station, consist of the outer walls, with two
square and two round towers; opposite the castle, and
overlooking the town, is Castle-how hill, an artificial circular
mount, thirty feet in height, surrounded at its base
by a deep fosse and a high rampart, strengthened, by
two bastions on the east; the summit, which is flat, is
crossed by a ditch, and defended by a breast-work of
earth; it is of greater antiquity than the castle, and, as
its name imports, was one of the spots on which, in ancient
times, justice was dispensed to the people. On
this eminence an obelisk, commemorative of the revohir
tion of 1688, was erected by the inhabitants of Kendal,
in 1788. Races are held in August, and generally well
attended. A mechanics institute and library was established
in April 1824.  There are also a news-room, a
free library, a book club, and a natural history society,
with a splendid museum containing a collection of
antiquities and natural curiosities. The assembly-rooms
erected by Mr. Webster of this town, and opened December
31st, 1827, consist of two fronts, one in Lowther-street,
the other in Highgate; the latter is ornamented
with a receding balcony, fronted with columns
and pilasters of the Ionic order, supporting a pediment,
and surmounted by a handsome lantern: the interior
contains a library and apartments for the librarian, on
the ground-floor; and on the principal floor is an elegant
ball-room. The news-room communicates with a
balcony in the front, facing Highgate-street, above which
is a billiard-room; the building was erected by shares
of £100 each, and the total expenditure amounted
to £6000.
The manufacture of woollen cloth was introduced
in the reign of Edward III., by emigrants from the Low
Countries skilled in making cloth; and it appears to
have flourished, as, in the reigns of Richard II. and
Henry IV., several provisions were made by parliament
for the regulation of the " Kendal cloths." Previously
to the establishment of these manufactories, all the
wool of the country was exported to the Netherlands,
and manufactured there, affording such a source of
gain as to induce the Duke of Burgundy to institute
the order of the " Golden fleece." The green druggets
made here and at other places were the common clothing
of the poor in London and elsewhere, for several
centuries, so that " Kendal Green " became proverbial.
The chief articles of manufacture at present are, coarse
woollen cloth, linsey, and knitworsted stockings; there.
are an extensive tannery and a manufactory for fishhooks
and wool-cards, which last have been greatly improved
by a machine invented for the purpose; likewise
mills for scouring, fulling, and friezing cloth, and for
rasping dye-wood, together with corn and paper-mills.
Combs of all descriptions are made here, and the manufacture
of this article has been greatly facilitated by the
introduction of a machine for sawing ivory, and cutting
the teeth of ivory combs. In addition to these, several
persons are employed in working and polishing marble,
which is remarkable for the beauty and variety of its
colours, and is obtained from the adjacent mountainous
district, and imported from Italy, to be wrought and
re-shipped. The neighbourhood abounds with limestone,
of which the houses in general are built, and which
was first polished here in 1788; the stone presents a hard
surface variegated with petrified shells, and has a very
beautiful appearance. At some mills below the town
a large quantity of gunpowder is manufactured. The
neighbourhood abounds with orchards, which are still
increasing, and afford a considerable supply of fruit.
A canal extends from the river Kent to Lancaster, thus
affording a communication with the extensive inland
navigation in that part of the kingdom; it was opened
in 1819; fly-boats are despatched daily, and a packetboat
leaves every morning at six oclock, during the
summer months, for the conveyance of passengers to
Lancaster, Garstang, and Preston. The market, established
by charter of Richard I., and confirmed by subsequent
sovereigns, is held on Saturday, and is principally
for corn, which is pitched in large quantities. Fairs are
held annually, at a place called Beast-banks, on the
22nd of March, the 29th of April, and on the 8th of
November and the following day, for horses, cattle,
and sheep; a statute fair for hiring servants is held on
the Saturday in Whitsun-week. The market-place, now
used almost exclusively for corn, is near the centre of
the town) very convenient shambles were opened in
1804, on its southern side: the fish market-is at the
head of Tinkle-street, and vegetables are sold in Stramongate.
This town received its charter of incorporation from
Queen Elizabeth, which was afterwards extended by
Charles I. The corporate body consists of a mayor,
twelve aldermen, and twenty capital burgesses, assisted
by a recorder, deputy recorder, town clerk, and
other officers: the mayor is chosen annually on the
Monday after Michaelmas-day, by the mayor for the
preceding year and the senior aldermen; the aldermen,
capital burgesses, and all the officers of the corporation,
are chosen in a similar manner: the mayor, the two
senior aldermen, and the recorder, or, in his absence, the
deputy recorder, are justices of the peace by virtue of
their office; they have power, by charter of 1684, to hold
sessions quarterly, to hear and determine on all offences
except felony and cases involving the loss of life or limb;
and to hold, every three weeks, a court of record for the
recovery of debts from 40s. to £40. The members of
the corporation are exempt from being empannelled on
juries; the mayor, who is clerk of the market, and the
senior aldermen, act as coroners. The adjourned sessions
from Appleby, for the Kendal and Lonsdale wards, are
held here; as is also, occasionally, a court baron under
the Earl of Lonsdale, and one annually by the Hon. F.
Greville Howard; there is a court of requests for the
recovery of debts under 40s., the jurisdiction of which
extends over the whole parish. The town-hall is a
handsome and spacious building, originally erected in
1591, and rebuilt on the same site in 1758. Near the
house of industry, a commodious edifice at the east end
of the town, erected in 1771, is the house of correction,
built in 1786, and which has recently undergone considerable
alterations. Kendal is the head of a barony,
which, prior to the Conquest, was included in the principality
of Cumberland, and was in the possession of the
Scottish crown: it comprises the whole of the Kendal
and Lonsdale wards, and several other places within the
county, and was given by William the Conqueror to Ivo
de Talbois, who thus became its first baron.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of
Richmond, and diocese of Chester, rated in the king's
books at s£92. 5., and in the patronage of the Master
and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. The church,
dedicated to the Holy Trinity, stands in Kirkland, a
hamlet without the liberties; it is principally in the later
style of English architecture with a low square tower,
the roof is supported by four rows of pillars, which
divide the interior into five aisles, and there is a little
screen-work; it contains many ancient monuments. A
church, dedicated to St. George, and standing in the
centre of the town, was erected, in 1754, as a chapel of
ease to the parish church. The living is a perpetual curacy,
endowed with £400 private benefaction, and £400
royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Vicar of
Kendal. There are places of worship for Baptists, the
Society of Friends, Glassites, Independents, Inghamites,
Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, Scotch Seceders,
Unitarians, and Roman Catholics; the meeting-houses
for the Society of Friends and the Independents are
spacious and; handsome buildings. The free grammar
school was founded and endowed with houses and
land in Kendal, by Adam Pennington, of Boston in
Lincolnshire, in 1525; the site was given, in 1588, by
Miles Phillipson, and the school-room was rebuilt in
1592; it has been successively endowed by Edward VI.,
Queens Mary and Elizabeth, the last of whom transferred
to it the revenues of two dissolved chantries;
the whole endowment producing about £ 37 per annum;
the nomination of the master and the usher is vested
in the mayor and aldermen. The school has three
exhibitions of £5 each to Queen's College, Oxford,
payable out of the tithes of the parish of Farlton, by
a bequest from Henry Wilson, in 1638; another exhibition
of £8 to the same college, paid by the Chamber
of Kendal, the exhibitioner being appointed by the
corporation, and receiving the stipend for four years;
one of £5 per annum for four years, to any college in
Oxford, the bequest of Mr. Alderman Park, in 1631,
the candidate to be of the parishes of Kendal, Millom,
or Heversham; also twenty shillings per annum, the gift
of Mr. Joseph Smith, and forty shillings per annum, the
gift of Mr. Jobson, for two exhibitioners to Queen's College,
Oxford. The system of education in this school,
which is open to boys of the parish indefinitely, is
strictly classical. Ephraim Chambers, the writer of the
Cyclopaedia; Dr. Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle; and
Dr. Shaw, the celebrated traveller, were educated here.
The Blue-coat school and hospital were founded and
endowed with estates by Thomas Sandes, an inhabitant
of this town, in 1670; the former for the education of
forty boys, who are taught the art of carding and weaving,
and thirty girls, being children of the inhabitants
of Kendal; the latter as the residence of eight poor
widows, six to be chosen from Kendal, one from Skelsmergh,
and the other from Strickland, and all to be nominated
by the mayor and aldermen, as trustees of the
charity: the inmates receive the weekly sum of five shillings
each, and a provision is made for a schoolmaster
to read prayers to the widows twice a day, and to teach
poor children preparatory to their entering the freeschool;
the founder bequeathed a library to the Bluecoat
school, which has been increased by subsequent
additions. The permanent income belonging to the
school and almshouse has been augmented by various
benefactions, and amounts to £283. 12. per annum, besides
which a collection is made at an annual sermon
for the benefit of the charity. A school of industry
was established in 1799, and is supported partly from
the interest of two bequests, and partly by voluntary
contributions; one hundred and thirty children, of both
sexes are instructed and employed. A National school
for boys was built by subscription in 1818, at an expense
of £700, and munificently endowed with £2000
in the five per cent, annuities, by Matthew Piper, Esq.,
of Whitehaven, a member of the Society of Friends,
who, dying in 1831, at the advanced age of ninetythree,
was interred by his own request in the interior
of the building; one hundred and eighty-six boys are
educated. The National school for girls, adjoining the
preceding edifice, was built in 1824 5 and the expense,
amounting to £500, was defrayed by subscription: it is
supported by voluntary contributions, and contains about
one hundred children, The Green-coat Sunday school
was founded, in 1813, by Mr; W. Sleddal, and endowed
with the interest of £ 525, for providing green hats and
coats for the boys, gowns and bonnets for the girls, and
a weekly stipend of two shillings to a master, for their
instruction on the Sunday: two junior aldermen and
two senior burgesses are appointed trustees. A dispensary
was established in 1783, to which a fever-house has
been recently annexed; the medical establishment consists
of a physician, five surgeons, and an apothecary.
A savings bank, established in 1816, is held at the committee-
room of the school of industry. Kendal has
conferred the title of earl on John, Duke of Bedford,
brother of Henry V., Prince George of Denmark, Prince
Charles, third son of James II., and other illustrious
persons; the present Earl of Pembroke has the title
of Baron Ross and Parr of Kendal. The following eminent
persons were natives of the town: Dr. Thomas
Shaw, a celebrated oriental traveller, the son of an alderman
of Kendal, born in 1692; Dr. Anthony Askew, a
learned physician and classical scholar, born in 1722;
John Wilson, a journeyman shoemaker, who distinguished
himself as a botanist, and published a " Synopsis of
British plants;" William Hudson, the author of "Flora
Anglica," who was an apothecary in London, where he
died in 1797; and John Gough, a member of the Society
of Friends, who, though blind, attained considerable
eminence by his researches in natural philosophy.