Historian Arthur Nicholls continues to reveal the stories behind some of Kendal’s streets

OUR search for notable Kendalian names leads us to the northern end of Stricklandgate, where we find The Wakefield Arms and Wakefield House.

These refer to John Wakefield, woollen manufacturer, merchant, ship owner and brewer, who opened his own bank in his house in 1788 on the same day as the opening of Maude, Wilson and Crewdson’s bank, with this his bank amalgamated in 1840 as ‘Kendal Bank’, now Barclays in Highgate.

The banks were trusted over the Bank of England during the war with France in 1797, a tribute to their Quaker honesty and reliability.

Mary Wakefield was born in 1853 in the old Bank House in Stricklandgate and was a talented singer and violinist.

She founded the annual Wakefield Music Festival in 1885, with competitions for local adults, children and schools, which is still held.

A plaque to her can be seen just inside the porch of the town hall.

The lesser-known Priscilla Wakefield founded the first Savings Bank, the first branch in Kendal being opened in 1816.

Dalton House, in a cul-de-sac off Sedbergh Road, refers to John Dalton, one-time schoolmaster at the Friends School in Stramongate.

He never really liked teaching and was known as a harsh disciplinarian.

From a child he showed a dogged and determined personality. He spent all his spare moments in studying and acquiring knowledge, becoming an original scientist, studying colour-blindness, which afflicted him, taking extensive weather records and for formulating the Atomic Theory, the basis of modern physics.

Perhaps we could say that Kendal’s ‘oldest inhabitant’ was the Anchorite, a hermit who lived in a stone hut beside the Anchorite Well, now seen on Kirkbarrow Estate.

In seclusion, he is said to have devoted his life to prayer, meditation and good works. The well is fed by a stream that never runs dry, even in times of drought and was thought to have healing powers.

We know nothing factual and stories have grown up about him, but we do know that a Kendal hermit around the time of the Reformation Julien de Clifford left money to the Parish Church to say masses for his soul.

Ending our survey on a religious note, we have two churches named after the Patron Saint of England, St. George. One is the Anglican Church on Gooseholme and the other the Roman Catholic Church on New Road.

The former was built in 1841 on a strong platform to guard against river flooding. Its tall spires had to be taken down to their present height due to cracks in the towers.

The Catholic Church, dedicated to ‘The Holy Spirit and St. George’, was designed by Webster and opened in 1837. On its east gable is Thomas Duckett’s statue of St George slaying the dragon.

These have been only a few names chosen at random. You can spend a happy hour looking for others and finding out about the people they recall.