The Story of…

Kendals Market Charter of 1575

In 1575, Queen Elizabeth I granted Kendal a Market Charter and this is when the boom in the cloth trade really began making Kendal a rich and prosperous place

Kendals Parish Church

There was enough wealth coming in to the town to improve and beautify the Parish Church, which was originally built around the same time as Kendal Castle, in about 1210 to 1250.

Old Kendal Grammar School

Kendal's prosperity from the wool trade allowed a Grammar School to be endowed close to the church and provided numerous charities for the poor and needy.

Alan Bellingham Brass Rubbing

The Bellingham family of Burneside were the greatest wool producers: you can see their chapel and the brass memorial to Alan Bellingham in the Parish Church.

Sandes Hospital, Highgate Kendal

In 1659, Thomas Sandes, a wealthy woollen merchant, founded the Sandes Hospital almshouses for poor widows, which still provide housing today.

Sandes Hospital Coat of Arms

This coat of arms at the entrance to Sandes Hospital almshouses shows a swag of cloth, teasel bats and shears.

Blackfaced Sheep

Why did Kendal become so successful over the years?

There were several factors: great flocks of sheep, most of them the blackfaced breed provided a ready supply of fleeces.

Potash Kiln

Plenty of water was avaliable as well as an abundance of bracken for making potash to produce the soapy solution for washing the wool.

Very capable merchants and a ready supply of workers flocked to the town.

Wool Processing Steps

The process of turning a sheep into a length of cloth is a long and laborious one. After shearing, the fleece was washed, usually in urine, to prepare it for carding.

This was done to ensure all the fibres lay the same way, using pads set with wire teeth.

Then the wool was spun and woven before being fulled in a soapy liquid to pound the loosely woven fibres tight.

Dyeing followed, with Kendal Green being the most well known colour. Since plant dyes were used, the colour was variable but was probably a rather dull green.

A Teasel Bat

The surface of the cloth was brushed with teasels which were mounted on a teasel bat.

Shearmen at Work

Once the cloth was brushed it was either left fluffy or cropped short with very long shears by workmen known as 'Shearmen'.

A Tenter Frame

Once the cloth was finished and washed, it was stretched to dry on tenter frames, which were set up all over the town.

The Waterside Washing Steps

The river was used for washing wool and cloth.

Washing steps and platforms were built all along the Waterside; several have survived the centuries and were restored recently by Kendal Civic Society.

A Hand Weaving Loom in a Stricklandgate Cottage

Robert Wiper handed the business on to his son, Harry, who continued to follow the original recipe and method of production that Joseph Wiper used over 100 years before.

Transporting Wool

The cloth was carried by trains of Pack-horses to all parts of the country; in 1750, 214 pack horse loads left Kendal every week.

The Growth of Transport in the Wool Industry

By 1787, great horse drawn wagons took over; it took 12 days for the eight horse teams to do the round trip between London and Kendal.

A Hand Knitter Working from Home

By the late 17th century, hosiery had become a major product.

Thousands of men, women and children were employed in hand knitting, in and around Kendal.

The yarn was supplied by agents who later collected the finished stockings.

This was hard work, poorly paid, but it made the difference between mere poverty and starvation for many families.

Home Industry, Making Socks

Many people knitted in every available minute, often using a knitting sheath to hold the needles.

In the 1770s, over 250 dozen stockings a week were sent out from Kendal.

Eventually mechanisation took over all this work of weaving and knitting, until the cloth trade began to die out in the 19th century.

There is little sign of the once great prosperous businesses now in Kendal.

The Fleece Inn

The past still lingers on if you know where to look. The Fleece Inn's name being one of the most obvious signs of the wool trade in Kendal.

The Woolpack Arch

The Woolpack, with its great high arch to allow the laden wool wagons to pass beneath, still survives.

Kendal Today

Here in modern Kendal, names such as Tenterfell, Dyer's Beck and Tenterfield are still in use.

And if your surname, or that of someone you know, is Webster, Mercer, Cropper, Lister, Bowker, Shearman or Sherman, and Walker, your ancestors were probably employed in the woollen trade which brought such wealth to Kendal. You are a living link with the past.