Life in Kendal, 1829 – A Bustling Market Town

 1829 Antique Print; Stramongate Bridge, Kendal, Cumbria after William Westall

As I dig deeper into my family tree, I find myself drawn to the everyday life of the places my ancestors lived. One such place is Kendal, a historic market town in Cumbria, which was already thriving nearly 200 years ago.

In 1829, Kendal was full of life, as described in Parson and White’s directory. The town had:

• 48 grocers

• 39 butchers — 15 in the New Shambles and nine in the Old

• 26 bakers

• 24 milliners and dressmakers

• 21 linen drapers

• 17 tailors

• 15 tea and coffee sellers

• 11 wine merchants

• Nine confectioners

• Plus a handful of tobacconists, cheese dealers, china merchants, ironmongers — and even an optician, a cutler, and a pawnbroker.

  
  

It must have been a busy place — full of smells, sounds, and activity. You can almost picture the bustle of market day, and the rows of small shops with their handcrafted goods and handwritten signs.

This rich mix of trades made Kendal a self-sufficient and spirited town — and it turns out, my own family played a part in that story. In my next post, I’ll share how a relative of mine worked in one of the town’s well-known shops — one that some local readers might remember by name.