Castle Dairy

The Castle Dairy is a particularly interesting building in Wildman Street. It is probably the oldest building in the Kendal after the Castle and the Parish Church.It is certainly the oldest continuously inhabited building in the town. In the 16th Century it was occupied by Anthony Garnett who came into possession of the house in 1553 after the Marquess of Northampton, William Parr (Baron of Kendal), was found guilty of treason and 'had his civil rights removed'. Garnett was responsible for a number of alterations and extensions to the house but it has remained largely unchanged since his time.

Although the building is now known as the 'Castle Dairy' but it is doubted that the building was anything to do with a dairy for the castle. It may be that the name is a corruption of Dower House, Dowry House or Castle Dowry.

There are a number of interesting features both on the exterior of the building and also inside. On a stone outside the central window, within a sun panel, there are the initials 'A.G.', for Anthony Garnett, with a cord of various knots entwined and the date 1564. In 1936 The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in England published 'An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Westmorland', which said:

...house and tenement on the N.W. side of Wildman Street, 1,000 yards N.N.E of the church, is of two storeys; the walls are of rubble and the roofs are slate covered. The main structure, with its one-storey half and cross-wings, appears to have been substantially of the 14th Century. Alterations were made in the hall early in the 16th Century and the house was reconditioed and the hall fireplace inserted by Anthony Garnett c1560. There is a small 17th Century wing on the N.W. side and a later extension of the S.W. wing. The house has cross-wings at the N.E. and S.W. ends of the hall-block; the latter is one storey only and has, on the S.E. front, the original doorway to the screens with hollow-chamfered jambs and a two-centered head; it has a 17th Century door with moulded fillets; further N.E. is an original window of three trefoiled lights in a square head; above it is a shield with the initials and date A.G. 1564. The two main chimney stacks have stepped offsets. The S.E> ends of the wings have each, on the lower floor, an altered window and on the upper floor an original window of two lights in a square head; the lights are trefoiled in one window and four centred in the other, this probably being a 16th Century alteration; above the lower window in the S.W. wing is the weathered inscription: "Qui vadit plane vadit sane A.G.. The back elevation has an original doorway similar to that in front and fitted with a battened door with moulded fillets; farther N.E. is a small rectangular window and a window of two trefoiled lights; in the end of the N.E. wing is an original window of two ogee-headed lights. Interior. The hall has a flat ceiling with two early 16th Century intersecting moulded beams; at the N.E. or dais end is an early 16th Century embattled cornice with a ribbed cove above, finishing against a chamfered beam; across the fireplace recess is a mid 16th Century moulded and panelled beam, resting at one end on a post with the date 1560; above the beam and the adjoining doorway is a panelled partition; by the fireplace is a small cupboard with a linen-fold panel on the door. The former 'screens' are represented by the existing passage and at one end is an oak doorway apparently original but reset; it has a moulded ogee head with the added inscription 'Pax huic domui 1558'; the moulded beam above is of early 16th Century character. In the N.E. wing, the partition of the upper floor has exposed framing and an original king-post roof truss above; the S.E. room has an early 16th Century elliptical ceiling with moulded ribs dividing it in to panels; there are two foliated bosses each with a shield-of-arms a) Deincourt quartering Strickland and b) Parr quartering Fitzhugh, Roos and another coat; on the S.W. cornice are carved scrolls and two grotesque monsters.In the same room are some quarries and panels of 16th Century glass - (a) the initials and date A.G. 1565, (b and c) eagle and child in a tree, the badge of Stanley, (d and e) the initials and date A.G. 1567 and the mottos 'Omnia Vanitas' and 'Viendra le jour', (f) crowned fleur-de-lis. The S.W. wing retains the three king-post trusses of the original roof. The N.W. wing has exposed ceiling beams. The extension of the S.W. wing is of late 17th or early 18th Century date. The house contains some moveable furniture belonging to the building, including a large bedstead with the initials A.G. and a sideboard with the sme initials and date 1562...

Local tales of a tunnel connecting the Dairy with Kenal Castle can be discounted as there is no evidence to be found for it, but also the technology to dig a tunnel of that length did not exist at that time in our history.