Kendal
Kendal is a small town in
Cumbria,
England. The largest town in the district of
South Lakeland and the
traditional county of
Westmorland, it is today known largely as a centre for
tourism and as the home of
Kendal mint cake. Its buildings constructed with the local grey
limestone have earned it the nickname
the Auld Grey Town.
Kendal stands on the
River Kent, surrounded by low
hills. It is just outside the
Lake District National Park, and is often regarded as being part of the Lake District itself. Although a relatively small town, it is an important commercial centre for a wide area thanks to its
rural location.
Kendal railway station is situated on the
Windermere Branch Line and gives connections to
Windermere to the north, and
Oxenholme (on the
West Coast Main Line) and
Lancaster to the south. Kendal is around 6 miles (10 km) from the
M6 motorway, and is bypassed on the west by the
A591 road, linking it to
Windermere,
Keswick and the
A590, as well as being the terminus of the
A65 road to
Kirkby Lonsdale and a destination on the
A6 road to Penrith.
The
Lancaster Canal was built as far as Kendal in
1819, but the northern section was rendered unnavigable by the construction of the M6. Part of this section was also drained and filled in to prevent leakage, and the course of the canal through Kendal has now been developed. A campaign is currently underway to restore the canal as far as Kendal.
|
View over the rooftops of Kendal, showing the typical grey limestone buildings. The Town Hall is in the centre. |
Kendal is listed in the
Domesday Book as part of
Yorkshire with the name
Cherchbi.
[Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place Names, Oxford University Press, 1998]. For many centuries it was called
Kirkbie Kendal, meaning "village with a church in the valley of the River Kent".
A chartered
market town, the centre of Kendal is structured around a high street with fortified alleyways (known locally as
yards) off to either side which allowed the local population to seek shelter from the Anglo-Scottish raiding parties known as the
Border Reivers. The main industry in these times was the manufacture of
woollen goods, the importance of which is reflected in the town's
coat of arms and in its latin motto "Pannus mihi panis", meaning
wool (literally 'cloth')
is my bread. "Kendal Green" was hard-wearing wool-based fabric specific to the local manufacturing process, and was supposedly sported by the Kendalian archers who were instrumental in the English victory over the French at
Agincourt.
The site of several (
ruined) castles, the most recent one constructed in the late
12th century, Kendal has a long history as a stronghold of one kind or another. King
Henry VIII's sixth wife
Catherine Parr is falsely believed to have been born at Kendal Castle.
Local government
The
municipal borough of Kendal was created in 1835 and until 1894 the town was also an
urban sanitary district. The borough boundaries were altered in 1935 by gaining a small part of
South Westmorland Rural District under a
County Review Order.
The
civil parishes of Kirkland and Nether Graveship were abolished in 1908 and became part of Kendal Civil Parish whose boundaries were after that the same as the borough.
The borough was abolished in 1974 under the
Local Government Act 1972 to become a part of
South Lakeland district whose administrative centre Kendal is. The town remained a civil parish with a
town council.
Kendal was from 1888 to 1974 the administrative centre of
Westmorland although
Appleby is the traditional
county town.
Kendal's early prosperity was based largely on cloth manufacture. In the
19th century it became a centre for the manufacture of
snuff and
shoes; the K Shoes company remained a major employer in the town until its factory closed in
2003. [
1] There are still a number of light industries based in the town, though
tourism is now one of the main employers.
On
February 26,
2003, Kendal was granted
Fairtrade Town status.
Kendal mint cake
Kendal is known today chiefly for
Kendal mint cake, a
glucose-based confectionary reputedly discovered accidentally by Joseph Wiper during his search for the clear
glacier mint.
Used on numerous expeditions to mountaintops (including
Mount Everest and
K2) and both poles of the Earth, its popularity is mainly due to the very astute decision of the original manufacturer's great nephew to market it as an energy food, and to supply
Ernest Shackleton's 1914–1917
Transarctic Expedition.
By the time the business was sold to competitor
Romney's in 1987 there were several rival mint cake producers, many of which are still in business.
|
A bridge over the old course of the Lancaster Canal, now used as a footpath. |
* Kendal Museum of Natural History and Archaeology (one of the oldest in the country, it includes an exhibition on the geology of the
Lake District, and a stuffed polar bear)
* Abbot Hall Art Gallery
* Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry
* Kendal Castle
*
Friends' Meeting House, home of the
Quaker Tapestry*
George Romney, portrait painter
*
Yan,
Hamilton and
Woody of the indie-rock band
British Sea Power – raised in
Natland, a nearby village.
*
David Starkey, historian
*
Sir Arthur Eddington, Astrophysicist
*
John Dalton, Chemist and Physicist
*
Alfred Wainwright, Guidebook author and walker
*
John Cunliffe, creator of Postman Pat
* Jonathan Dodgson Carr, founder of Carrs Breadmakers and social reform campaigner
*
The Westmorland Gazette (Local Newspaper)
*
Abbot Hall*
Brewery Arts Centre*
George Romneys of Kendal*
Kendal Online (Community Website)
*
Illustrated guide to KendalMap references
*
*
Kendal Town F.C.
