The Leyland Clock

This is a sketch of the Leyland Clock that stood within the garden of the Brewery Arts Centre, currently away for repair the site, as it stands at the moment is a bit of an eyesore, so, with hope that it returns soon, or someone decides that something a little more aesthetically pleasing to the eye would be better placed.

In the meantime, back to BYGONE DAYS from Arthur R. Nicholls Historian and Vice Chairman of Kendal Civic Society

There used to be a standing joke about the Leyland Clock in the grounds of Kendal's Brewery Arts Centre, that it always showed the right time, - at 1.50 twice a day!

Despite the advertisement on the clock - 'Leyand Motors For All Time' - it had ceased to work for some 20 years or more.

The Lancashire Steam Motor Company started up in 1896 and later as Leyland Motors Ltd, placed clocks at seven prominent positions on major trunk roads. The clocks were mounted on latticework towers , the face hanging below a sign advertising the name of the firm.

Our Kendal clock was on the A6 North of the old Jungle Cafe, south of Shap summit. It had faces showing in both directions at an angle, studded with reflex lenses to reflect car headlanps.

For many years the clock was wound by Thomas Huck, a local farmer, who was paid £2 a year for his pains and after his death by his daughter, Mrs Lenore Knoles.

Seeming to have outgrown its usefulness it was removed in 1970 and stored for three years before being put up again at the Brewery where relapsed into its slumber.

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum Trust placed a commemorative stone at the old site, inscribed with a brief history of the Leyland Clocks, and refurbished it, starting it again at noon on Sunday October 6, 1966. It was later taken away for further work.

When it returns if you want to know the time don't ask a policeman but look at the Leyland Clock . Hopefully, it will have right.

End of News Piece. NB. I hope the good Arthur R Nicholls wont be upset being a now regular inclusion of my BLOG I shall have to place a note to him; on my list of things to do.

Returning from the Brewery I passed under the recent edition to the Town Centre, a pedestrian walk way under the now familiar scaffold that adheres to the exterior wall of the recent Fire Damage to the property that gave home to around 13 Artists, each losing a life times work and gaining a brand new start in life, to lose everything and to have to start again, with nothing, is a terrifically cleansing experience and indeed as much a spiritual as a practical opportunity for rebirth.

For those with a sense of curiosity, the huge tanks that sit around the base of the scaffold is simply water, ballast to hold down the scaffold, not something that I have seen before having spent many occasions staring up into the maze that is a scaffold system, each piece fitting like a jigsaw piece and with a specific design and purpose with Health and Safety at its fore, not only for the workers but also for passers by, Scaffold, when it collapses is not unlike the 'mexican wave', or the dominoes that people lay out in their thousands to watch them all topple with a flick of a finger, when it starts to go a thousand pieces or more role in quite a beautiful way.

John Watton -artist and forger

I was first introduced to the carvings on the gatepost on Serpentine Road by Andrew Crawford, now a (slightly) older man who enjoys sharing his times of old Kendal through the eyes of one who once roamed the streets, a young and exploratory boy, at the time he was unable to tell me anything about the carvings other than, "Thers' not many folk know they're ere". Even today few venture from the centre of town be they local or tourist unless they have specific business in that area.

Today when off in search of them to provide the fotographs for this BLOG I have to admit to having no slight difficulty in locating them even then, not without getting a little lost in the ancient walkways of Kentbank, what a fascinating part of Town.

Arthur R Nicholls historian and vice chairman of Kendal Civic Society however provides the information to go with the carvings and echoes my earlier comments on the pace of peoples lives forcing them to be missing out on some little treasures.

BYGONE DAYS - by A.R.Nicholls

We are so often in a hurry or taken up with private thoughts and worries that we fail to notice strange and interesting things on our way.

A gatepost of a house in Serpentine Road is a case in point. There, carved in stone by John Watton are the faces of the remarkable mans four children.

He was chosen by the K Shoes Company in 1949 to be the first editor of their house magazine, The Eyelet. It illustrated the work of the different departments and factories, tellin gabout the hobbies, holidays and the like of the employees, to foster a family feeling.

John was so successful in his task that he remained as editor until 1975 when an economy drive saw the magazine was discontinued.

But this wasn't his first outing in print.

Watton joined the Border Regiment as a Territorial before the outbreak of the Second World War and received a commission.

During Dunkirk he was taken prisoner at the nearby village of Incheville, becoming a prisoner of war.

Yet he was never content to remain in prison, making several abortive attempts to escape, and was eventually moved to a more secure place. As an officer he was incarcerated in the infamous Colditz Castle where he used his artistic skills in forging German documents and passports for fellow officers to use in their escape attempts.

He also acted as an official artist and unbelievably, was able to send drawings of life in the castle for publication in The Illustrated London News.

End of news piece.

D0g Kennel Wood

I first found the site of the wood conservation organisation in Queens Road some years ago, on that day in particular I was fortunate to find not a soul working or walking in the grounds, I enjoyed a wonderful peaceful half day in the grounds without disturbance or in knowledge of the history, that was until last week.

BYGONE DAYS by Arthur R Niholls, historian and vice chairman of Kendal Civic Society.

DOGS. Either you love them or hate them. Two problems still beset us today, that of dog mess in the streets and parks, and dangerous types of dogs attacking people. Aproblem that was only eradicated n Britain in 1922 was that of mad dogs. That is dogs suffering from rabies.

A rabid dog would foam at the mouth, the disease causing such distress that it would bite anything at han.

When it bit a human being it transmitted rabies or hydrophobia, which is a craving for or fear of wather.

Its symptoms were terrible and it was often fatal; in 1838 there were 24 cases of humans dying from the disease. What had all that do do with Kendal?

Such events happened too often even here and action was taken in 1846 resulting in the municipal dog pound or kennel being constructed in a part of Serpentine Woods known as Dog Kennel Wook, which is now the BTCV tree nursery, where the ruins my still lie. A plaque was fixed to the wall of the kennel reading 'Kendal Dog Kennel - Erected by Private Subscription' 1846' the plaque is now preserved in Kendal Museum's store.

Various attempts were made nationally to control the scourge but it was not until the Dogs Act of 1871 that powers were given to local authorities to take measures such as fining owners and destroying mad dogs.

Thankfully, we have little fear of catching rabies today. if ou hear the name Dog Kennel Wood you will know why it was so called.

End of News Piece

Sandes Hospital

The local newspaper, The Westmoreland Gazette, is for the most part, a community

Newspaper, as Cumbria opens its gates a little wider to the outside world this is slowly becoming something of diminishing responsibility.

One of my favorite parts of the paper is its 'Nostalgia' page, testimony from some of our older residents of life in Kendal from another era, a regular spot for Arthur Nicholls, historian and vice chairman of Kendal Civic Society, that brings the reader a small insight into notes of historical folk lore and history, it is this which I bring today and hopefully on other days.

BYGONE DAYS by Arthur Nicholls

A constant stream of pedestrians passes the gatehouse of Sandes Hospital in Highgate each day without thinking of looking inside. there under the archway is the insignificant, black painted Poor Box. The hospital was not a medical establishment but one providing hospitality.

In 1659 Thomas Sandes, a wealthy wool trader, endowed the hospital for the benefit of eight poor widows aged 52 and upward who were, or had been, workers in wool and were of good reputation. 52 was then a good age for a working woman.

In return for a free cottage and a shilling a week, the women had to work, carding, spinning and weaving raw Kendal cottons supplied by Thomas. The requirement to work ended in 1852 when the cottages were turned into almshouses.

They received security in their declining years but little else. they were not allowed to marry or receive male visitors and to some extent depended on the charity of others through the Poor Box.

In the yard behind were their small cottages and a chapel. A school and library were originally housed in the gatehouse before the school moved into a building at the end of the yard and became the Blue-coat School.

It was an honour to be elected for a place in the school, which merged with the Grammar School in 1889.

End of News piece.

Blue coat schools originated in Tudor times,

Thomas Sandes was also Mayor of Kendal in 1647

The coat of arms above the entrance to the Alms houses was divised by Thomas Sandes and was an amalgam of the Shearman Dyers Arms and those of the Sandes (Sandys) family, neither of which he was entitled to use.

the coat of arms shows a swag of woollen cloth which surmounts the shield and the initials TSK refer to Thomas and Katherine Sandes, the date of 1659 was probably when construction of the Hospital began.

Dr Briggs, a clergyman of Kendal, reorganised the Kendal Blue Coat School so as to include a day school of industry for the children of the poor of his town. this was probably around 1786 and based on the success of Haygarth's work in Chester Blue coat school.

The Blue coat school was for the education of forty boys, who were tought the art of carding and weaving, and thirty girls, being children of the inhabitants of Kendal; the hospital as a residence of eight poor widows six from Kendal, one from Skelsmergh and the other from Strickland and all to be nominated by the mayor and aldermen as trustees of the charity; the 'inmates' receive the weekly sum of five shillings (25p) each and a provision was made for a schoolmaster to read prayers to the widows twice a day, to teach poor children preparatory to their entering the free-school

The founder also bequeathed a library to the Blue coat school.

The original gatehouse still stands and has not changed a great deal and is currently a Tea Room, set in the wall remains the original black metal poor box (foto above), the alms houses are still in the yard behind (foto above) and still home elderly folk.

the houses were rebuilt in 1852 by Miles Thompson. in 1886 the school merged with Kendal Grammar School which was succeeded in 1980 by the now Kirkbie Kendal School, whole trustees still own the property.

Another post of interest, entitled 'IN THIS WEEK' highlites of the past, 100 years, 50 years and 25 years ago, People of the past that were, or are, associated with Cumbria and 'The Past in Numbers, in this weeks Gazette it is 10p - The cost of a parking space at Kendal's £200,000 multi-storey car park when it opened in April 1972, currently amidst the constant public outcry over the lack of parking spaces in Kendal, it is more likely to be in the pounds rather than Pence.