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Town Hall, Kendal
Kendal Town Hall
Whitehall Assembly Rooms
Street:-   Highgate
locality:-   Kendal
civil parish:-   Kendal (formerly Westmorland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   town hall
coordinates:-   SD51499263
1Km square:-   SD5192
10Km square:-   SD59

photograph
BRZ10.jpg  Porch:-
"AD 1893 ..." and coat of arms.
(taken 19.1.2010)  
photograph
BRZ09.jpg (taken 19.1.2010)  
evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Wmd 38 8) 
placename:-  White Hall Buildings
placename:-  White Hall
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.
"White Hall (Site of) / White Hall Buildings"
evidence:-   old print:- 
placename:-  Whitehall
source data:-   Print, uncoloured engraving, Whitehall, Kendal, drawn by M Thompson, engraved by M Lambert, published by Hudson and Nicholson, Kendal, Westmorland, 1832.
image  click to enlarge
PR0729.jpg
Frontispiece to The Annals of Kendal by Cornelius Nicholson. 
printed at bottom left, right, centre:-  "Drawn by M. Thompson / Engraved by M. Lambert / WHITEHALL, KENDAL. / Published by Hudson &Nicholson, Highgate, Kendal."
item:-  private collection : 125.2
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   descriptive text:- Ford 1839 (3rd edn 1843) 
placename:-  White Hall
source data:-   Guide book, A Description of Scenery in the Lake District, by Rev William Ford, published by Charles Thurnam, Carlisle, by W Edwards, 12 Ave Maria Lane, Charles Tilt, Fleet Street, William Smith, 113 Fleet Street, London, by Currie and Bowman, Newcastle, by Bancks and Co, Manchester, by Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, and by Sinclair, Dumfries, 1839.
image FD01P020, button  goto source
Page 20:-  "... [Kendal]"
"... White Hall, a large public edifice, with handsome stone fronts, looking into Lowther-street and High-gate, was built in 1825, from a design by the late Mr. Webster, architect,"
image FD01P021, button  goto source
Page 21:-  "at the cost of £6000. It is one hundred and forty-eight feet long, and thirty-seven broad, having the principal entrance ornamented by a receding balcony, fronted with columns and pilasters of the Ionic order, supporting a pediment. A handsome circular lantern gives light to the billiard-room, besides which, are a library, news-room, and elegant ball-room. ..."
evidence:-   old text:- Gents Mag
item:-  Kendal bowmen; Battle of Flodden Field; Wars of Scottish Independence
source data:-   Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922.
image G853A614, button  goto source
Gentleman's Magazine 1853 part 1 p.614  "..."
"Secondly. With regard to the white coats worn by the Kendal men at the battle of Flodden Field:-"
""The left-hand wing, with all his route,
The lusty Lord Dacre did lead;
With him the bows of Kendale stoute,
With milk-white coats and crosses red.""
"Upon this stanza I had observed, in the "Annals of Kendal," that it seemed to me not improbable that the public building called White Hall, in the town of Kendal, might have been designated "White Cloth Hall" originally, from the manufacture of this white cloth, and so the name afterwards changed to "White Hall." This, you object, is founded "upon a misapprehension, because the old poet (you say) was not describing a colour peculiar to the manufacture or archers of Kendal." My derivation is in no wise grounded or dependent upon the white cloth being "peculiar to Kendal." You observe that there were also "the white coats of London." So, I answer, there is the White Hall of London! And why may not the original of this have been White Cloth Hall, where the white cloths for the "trained bands of the City" were made, or more likely only exposed for sale? In the town of Leeds there are at this day two Cloth Halls, - a "White Cloth Hall" and a "Coloured Cloth Hall," which helps materially, in my humble opinion, to strengthen, if not to confirm my case."
"Again, I observed, that these white cloths, the Kendal cottons, were spotted by hand with colours red, blue, green, &c. and that such spots might easily, by poetic fancy, be magnified into "crosses red." This you incline to regard as a misconception, "because white coats with St. George's crosses were worn by all the infantry of our English army," and "every bowman or soldier exhibited only one cross back and front, displayed upon the whole of his body." In reply, I have to observe that it is not a matter of controversy but a fact that the early Kendal cottons, made for home consumption, were mostly white, and some were spotted red, blue, green, &c. by the hand.†This species of manufacture was called ermines, or "spotted cottons." I have an idea (which, however, needs confirmation) that these "spots" might be designed as the rude armorial bearings of the different barons, for the purpose of distinguishing their respective retainers, and hence, perhaps, a reason for some being spotted red, some blue, some green. Well, then, if"
" †Annals of Kendal, p.203."
evidence:-   old text:- Gents Mag 1853
source data:-   image G853A615, button  goto source
Gentleman's Magazine 1853 part 1 p.615  "my supposition is correct, these "milk-white cloths" were spotted with the local baronial mark. On the other hand your statement may be correct too, the white cloths in your case being spotted*with the national mark. However this may be, you will hardly doubt that the Kendal men were the wearers of the "spotted cottons" and the manufacturers of their own wear at the battle of Flodden Field, and that is the main point of my history."
"Yours, &c."
"CORNELIUS NICHOLSON."
"The Hill, Hornsey, May 23, 1853."
"... ..."
"*The "crosses of Saint George" were clearly not "spotted" or printed on the coats of the soldiery, but formed of red cloth sewn over the white. - Edit."
evidence:-   database:- Listed Buildings 2010
placename:-  Town Hall
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"TOWN HALL / / HIGHGATE / KENDAL / SOUTH LAKELAND / CUMBRIA / II / 75377 / SD5149392633"
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"Assembly Rooms, known as White Hall, on sloping site; 1825 by Francis (&George?) Webster. 1859 converted for use as Town Hall by George Webster. 1893 (date in pediment) extended by Stephen Shaw. Hammer-dressed, banded, ground floor; 1st floor ashlar, with sill band. Eaves band and cornice. Highgate elevation has open parapet of turned stone balusters with covered urns on plinth blocks at each end; 2 ornate dormers with clock tower between. Steeply-pitched, hipped, graduated slate roofs. 2 storeys with attic to Highgate, and cellars to Lowther Street, elevations. 3-bays (2:1) added to left on Highgate elevation in 1893: Panelled double doors in richly-decorated doorcase with date and cartouche in open and broken pediment; 2 semicircular-headed windows to left with Call Stone on ground between (part of Stricklandgate Market Cross, from which proclamations have been made for over 3 centuries). 1st floor: Sash over door in architrave with splayed feet and swan-neck pediment, all within segmentally-pedimented surround; 2 sashes in corniced architrave to left. Dormer window in pedimented architrave with splayed feet. 2-stage clock tower (above door) has semicircular-headed louvred openings; swan-neck pediment between stages has cartouche with initial 'B' (for Alderman William Bindloss, Mayor, who gave the bells). 2nd stage has large, circular, clock face in open-pedimented surround. Ogee lead roof is surmounted by small lantern with weather-vane. Former White Hall comprises 3 (symmetrical) right-hand bays (1:1:1) of Highgate elevation and 14 bays (3:8:3) on Lowther Street. Highgate: central, panelled double doors and semicircular fanlight with semicircular-headed window to either side. 1st floor: Pedimented Ionic loggia in antis with cast-iron balustrade; sash in corniced architrave to either side. Central Venetian dormer window, in ornate pedimented surround, added in 1893 (replacing mid Cl9 clock tower). Lowther Street: 3 bays to either end have semicircular-headed windows to ground floor and tall 1st floor sashes; lower ground floor to Magistrates Court (3 eastern bays) has recessed, panelled double door in corniced surround with 2 windows to left. 8 central bays have semicircular-headed windows to both floors. Glazing bars to windows on both elevations. Interior: Richly decorated, mainly 1893 fittings. Hall cornice has wreaths to frieze; staircase with spiral curtail to ornamental iron handrail (rear stair similar). Council Chamber has ornate wooden chimneypiece; Assembly Hall has Doric pilasters carrying coved segmental ceiling. Both Court Room and Assembly Hall have galleries supported on cast-iron pillars."
 chiming clock

photograph
CCJ63.jpg (taken 7.2.2015)  
photograph
CCJ64.jpg (taken 7.2.2015)  
photograph
CCJ65.jpg  Coat of arms.
(taken 7.2.2015)  
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