The Story of Stricklandgate House

The house is very old - far older than it appears at first glance. It has stood here for over 200 years!

John Speed's map of Kendal in 1614 shows Stricklandgate but there is no sign of the house. John Whitwell said that it replaced an earlier house and business premises belonging to the Rutson family of shearman dyers. Robert Rutson was Mayor of Kendal in 1751. In John Todd's (1784) map, it shows the house with a formal garden behind it. It was said to have been the largest and best house in the town then, and for many years later.

The story of the house begins with Joseph Maude. He came from a family of coal exporters in Sunderland where he worked for his uncle Barnabas. He did well for himself and amassed a considerable fortune, selling up in 1770. Three years later, at the age of 40, he came to Kendal where he set up as a merchant, bill-broker and moneylender. Before long he had become one of Kendal's most influential merchants. He built Stricklandgate House about 1776 - just after the beginning fo the American War of Independance.

He married into the Holme family, consolidated his position in Kendal society. The Holmes provided mayors of Kendal on no less than five occasions. Not only was Joseph successful in business but also as a father, producing a family of 12 children at about one a year. The census of 1787 shows his family and household as:

• Joseph and his wife;
• His nine sons - Thomas, Frederick, William, Joseph, Warren, Edwin, John, Charles and Barnabas;
• His three daughters - Miss Maude (the eldest), Annamaria and Charlotta;
• He had two menservants - Roger Hunter and William Robinson, and five maidservants - Agnes Sorray, June Smallwood, Ann Braithwaite, Mary Barnet and Leah Viall (some of the girls probably to deal with maternity needs).

Twenty one people in all, altogether quite a household.

Stricklandgate developed as a road with big houses for prominent members of business and society, interspersed with shops, small houses and yards with cottages and work premises at the rear. There were eventually shops on each side of the house. It was said that Kendal's wealth lay along this short road where most of the town's shearmen dyers and mercers lived but, like the rest of Kendal at the time, the roads were in a terrible condition. A visitor remarked in 1797:

I would wish to say something in praise of the town but it is too ill-paved to mind anything but your feet

There were no pavements then and it was not until 1824 that John Macadam put down his experimental road surface in Stricklandgate which led to the modern term tarmacadam.

According to John Curwen, the first two banks in Kendal were founded on the same day, 1st January 1788. One was Maude, Wilson & Crewdson's in Stramongate, and the other John Wakefield's who opened in his house a few doors away from Stricklandgate House. Normally, banks were formed by firms of attorneys so it is significant that Maude's and Wakefield's standing in the town was so high that they were able to break with tradition. Both banks were so secure that they were able to withstand the financial crises of the early 19th century when many large banks failed.

Joseph Maude died in 1803, bequeathing £25 to the Kendal Bluecoat School. His son Thomas continued to live in the house for some years, becoming Mayor of Kendal in 1799 and 1813. John Wood's map of 1833 shows that he extended his land holdings behind and to the north of the house. His next door neighbours at the time were Miss Roddick, William Cookson and William Fisher, all involved in some way with the wool and linen trade. Twenty years later, Henry Hoggarth shows on his map that the grounds had been extended further, and were then named "Maude's Meadow"

Thomas does not seem to have inherited his father's business ability or interests. The bank was amalgamated with Wakefield's in 1840 to form "The Kendal Bank" and it seems that he must have moved from the house as it was rented out for short periods. It might be significant that the last of the Free Companies of Kendal - the Cordwainers - was broken up during his first mayoral year. In his second, a great procession of Corporation and Trades was held which was accompanied by "a general illumination". Perhaps this was the origin of the Torchlight Procession!" The Kendal Bank of Savings established its office in Stricklandgate House in 1815.

In 1854 the house was leased to "The Kendal Literary & Science Society" at a rent of £45 per annum. The Society had begun in 1835 as "The Natural History & Scientific Society" and from the start it was decided to form its own Museum and Library. Among the first members were William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, John Dalton and Adam Sedgewick. The latter once kept the attention of an audience of over 300 for no less than two hours while he lectured on Geology. The Society originally met in New (Lowther) Street and then in the old Roman Catholic Chapel before moving to the house. Its regular programme of lectures was so popular that it had to hire larger rooms from time to time, such as St. George's Hall and the Town Hall.

The Society's Museum began with "a few stuffed birds and one or two relics of antiquity", growing year by year with donations into an imposing and valuable collection. With the move to Stricklandgate House, the Society changed its name again, this time to "The Kendal Literary and Scientific Institution" - it had reached a high status by then. At the same time, the Kendal Library amalgamated with the Institution. 1895 brought uncertainty about the future of the Institution. Its lease of the house was due to expire and the new rental of £90 was more than it could afford. After much discussion it was reduced to £80, which was still too high. The Institution would have to leave the house and there was nowhere it could go; its Museum and Library would have to be closed and dispersed. Then, at the last moment, came a knight in shining armour to the rescue. The Kendal Bank of Savings had recently closed down but still had considerable residual funds. Gilbert Gilkes, on behalf of the directors of the Bank, purchased the house, had it thoroughly renovated and generously leased it to the Institution for a nominal rent. Everyone could breathe again!

The following year, the Kendal News Room, which had been established as far back as 1779, was given notice to quit its room at the Town Hall. All appeals for a stay of execution fell on deaf ears. It was now the turn of the Institution to act as saviour and the News Room reopened in Stricklandgate House the very next day after it vacated the Town Hall. So life went on, the Museum being particularly successful. Normally, entrance was restricted to members of the Institution, their guests and to paying members of the public. At the end of 1900 the doors were thrown open without charge on four afternoons as an experiment. The result was a phenomenal success. No less than 2869 persons came in and it was recorded that "no difficulty was found in preserving order and no damage was done to the exhibits" despite there being little protection for some of them. So, the great unwashed were not the uncivilised vandals that some had feared!

However, storm clouds were gathering. The new Public Library had opened and a slow decline ensued in the Institution's activities. By 1910 it found itself in financial difficulties. Lectures were attracting smaller audiences and were reduced in number year by year. Newspapers were available in the Public Library, which carried a wider range of books, on free loan. Eventually, in 1913, the end had to come and the Institution was disbanded. Some of its treasures were sold to the British Museum (Natural History) and the remaider of its museum collection was handed to the Kendal Corporation to form the nucleus of the present Kendal Museum. (This is now in Station Road, only a few minutes walk away and should not be missed).

The house, all through these years had remained virtually unchanged in its exterior appearance except in the very minor detail. The 1911 Ordnance Survey map shows the house marked as a museum, and a photograph in the early years of the twentieth century shows the house with the word "MUSEUM" in large letters above the first floor windows. The railings at the front were removed during World War 2, ostensibly for making into munitions but more probably as a public relations exercise to raise public morale.

Following the demise of the Institution, the house was emptied and closed, but not for long. It was bought by Dr. Samuel Clarke Noble, who lived where until his death in 1926. His widow, Mary Noble, continued to live in the house (or at least held an interest in it) until her death in 1945. The house was again emptied and remained so for two years under the control of other trustees, when the South Westmorland Rural District Council issued a compulsory purchase order, taking possession and moving in to use it as its offices in June 1948. Under local government changes in 1974 the title was passed to the South Lakeland District Council, which too used the house as offices, the main room being its Council Chamber.

When the District Council opened its new South Lakeland House offices and transferred its staff there, Stricklandgate House remained empty and forlorn. "For Sale" notices were posted up but there were no takers. Then it was refurbished and leased to the Stricklandgate House Trust and given a new life as the home for a number of charities working in the town and the district around

© Trevor Huges 2004