Town Hall

Curwen, 1900 p41-45

The present Town Hall stands upon the site of the ancient White Hall, a name which may have been taken from the manufacture of a white cloth - White Cloth Hall - as in a poem of the "Battle of Flodden Field," the brave men of Kendal seem to have been coated with such stuff.

"The left hand wing, with all his route,

The lusty Lord Dacres did lead;

With him the bows of Kendal stout,

With milke-white coates and crosses red.

- - - -

These are the bows of Kentdale bold,

Who fierce will fight and never flee."

Some accounts also say that this hall also bore at one time, the name of Leaden or Leather Hall. The front projected with two wings, the windows were stone mullioned, and the ample staircase was of stone. A Robinson of Rokeby Hall, connected by marriage with the Tolsons of Tolson Hall, lived here and carried on an extensive trade in London, exporting Kendal cotton to Virginia and the West Indies. His relative, Thomas Tolson, would probably charter the return ships, for he tells us that he built his residence out of money made by dealing in tobacco, and caused painted and inscribed glass to be put in the windows in 1638 to commemorate the fact.

How the Corporation became the possessors, the first time, and at what date, I cannot find any note of. But in 1825, a joint-stock company purchased the site from them for £1,380 with shares of £55 each, and built thereon a news room and lecture hall, with ball, card, and billiard rooms attached, at a total cost of £6,000 completely finished. The foundation stone was laid by the Mayor, Michael Braithwaite, and a copy of each of the local newspapers and of the Corporation arms, printed on satin, were enclosed in a glass bottle, and deposited under the corner stone. (*This glass bottle and contents were recovered on digging out the foundations for the New Clock Tower)

In 1853, Mr Edmund Rhodes took a wonderful bird's eye photograph from the top of Beast Banks, through a camera made by himself out of an old cigar box! It is the earliest known photograph of Kendal, and is chiefly valuable for its representatio on the old cupola on the top of this roof. I regret exceedingly, that my publishers find it impossible to get a satisfactory reproduction of this excellent photograph for illustration.

These Assembly Rooms were repurchased by the Corporation for £2,250 in 1859, when they were converted into the Town Hall, and the basement fitted with lock-up cells.

There being no tower to the White Hall to recieve the new clock presented by John Wakefield, it was decided to pull down the old cupola and erect one for its accomodation. Concerning which, there seems to have been considerable discussion as to its right position - i.e., whether it should be central or placed at the north-west corner, where it might have been seen down Stricklandgate as far as Museum. However, when it was ultimately built in 1861, at a cost of nearly £600, it seems to have been universally approved, and described as a handsome structure; about 13 feet by 10 feet, rising to a height of 85 feet from the pavement. The clock had four plate-glass dials, illuminated by gas, turned on and off by the movement of the clock itself. The first hour was struck on Sir James Lowther's bell, at one o'clock on Saturday, the 21st day of December, 1861. A new flagpole was also erected, standing 90 feet in height, and raised its flag on the 1st November to celebrate the election of the new councillors.

Within the last few years the Corporation has acquired the adjoining properties above mentioned, and on this enlarged site, it has almost entirely rebuilt the Town Hall at a cost of £22,000. The tower now contains a new clock and eleven bells. The large tenor weighs 2 ton 4 cwt. 1qr., and bears the following inscription: - "These bells were bequeathed to the inhabitats (*By some error the word has been cast without the 'n') of Kendal be Alderman William Bindloss, Mayor, MDCCCXCV." The following mottoes are inscribed on the other bells, which vary in weight from 30 cwt. to cwt., namely: - 2, Justitiam et Honorem Colant Omnes; 3, Deum laudo, Vivos vovo, Mortuos plango; 4, Honos alit Artes; 5, Honos est praemium Virtutis; 6, Nihil semper Floret, Aetas Succedit Aetatem; 7, Omnis fert Aetas Animum quorque; 8, Ring in the love of truth and right; 9, Ring in the common love of good; 10, Omnia Jovan Laudant Animantia; 11, Nobis Solamen det deus.

The daily chimes ring out their five-finger exercises as follows: -

Sunday ... ... ... "Devotion"

Monday ... ... ... "Kelvin Grove."

Tuesday ... ... ... "British Grenadiers."

Wednesday ... ... ... "Poor Mary Anne."

Thursday ... ... ... "When the King enjoys his own again."

Friday ... ... ... "Garry Owen."

Saturday ... ... ... "There is nae Luck about the house."

The bell on which the old town clock struck the hours now hangs outside the Police Station, and is used as a fire bell, at whose clang the fire brigade turn out; and, "woe betide the person a-bed whose house is on fire - if not sleeping in a mackintosh." In olden days a bell used also to be rung on a market day to signify that permission was then given to the farmers to sell the produce of their dairies.