KENDAL VISION - INSPIRATION FOR CHANGE IN KENDAL

Kendal c1770 Kendal c1900 Kendal Today Tightly clustered along Highgate and centred around the junction between Finkle Street and Shap Road, the town keeps a respectful distance from the river. Kendal was a market for local agriculture and a staging post on the main route north and south. The first yards were home to the emerging wool fulling and spinning industry. The town continues to expand. Industrial expansion on the east bank was driven firstly by the coming of the canal and then the railway. Town affluence saw residential development expand in all directions, onto the flood plain and steeper slopes of the surrounding hills. As the town has developed it has led to encroachments into the valley sides and flood plain. The car saw Kendal increase in size 5 fold as housing no longer needed to be close to the town centre. The creation of the M6 and then the bypass to Windermere from the south made Kendal redundant as a staging post. Many of the yards have been severed with views and links to the river curtailed. Whilst providing housing, the more recent and largest areas of built expansion in the last century have not contributed to ‘Kendal-ness’. It is largely sprawl, masking what makes Kendal unique and special. KENDAL VISION 2020 | THE PLACE 11