Map of Kendal

[jillruss]

I'm having yet another go at sorting out my Troughton branch in Kendal.

I'd be very grateful if someone could recommend an online map of Kendal. I know the early Troughtons came from Fellside. On the 1841 & 51 censuses my Edward Troughton is living in Union Street, Kendal. I managed to find Union Street on Google maps but have no idea if it was in Fellside as I just can't find Fellside!

Also, I've been looking at some Troughtons in the 1787 'Census' but they're in the Stricklandgate ward. Is/was this anywhere near Fellside or am I right in thinking that my lot lived in one of the areas of Kendal where the 1787 census records did not survive.

I've tried Genuki and tried googling, but need help! 

Jill

[DudleyWinchurch]

If you look on the map, Lower Fellside is just on the other side of the A5284 from Union Street.  I've no idea though, if that was what was called Fellside in the 19th century and earlier.  It's a street name now but may have referred more generally to the area before.  The street is certainly old enough to have been there then.  I may possibly be able to find out more precisely how old the houses are.

[Brie]

Jill,

There is a book (large pamphlet) called Life on Old Fellside by Gerald Williams published by the Lakeland Dialect Society. I have read it and it is fascinating as it is local people talking about their childhoods in Fellside. I don't know where you are but the Cumbria Library Services may hold copies in their local history collections.

Without a map in front of me I find it difficult to describe where I picture/remember it to be but I will try and work it out. Anyway the book does have a basic map. Fellside was from what I remember in the book a poor area but with a good community spirit.

Brie

[jillruss]

Thanks for your help.

I found Lower Fellside - as you said, Dudley, just south of the A5284 - and Strickland Gate seems to run parallel. Both are near Union Street. At least I've now got a picture in my mind of the geography, but I can't find any of my Troughtons in the Stricklandgate 1787 census returns so Fellside must have fallen into a different ward (probably 'Fellside' for all I know!) even though they were pretty adjacent.

Brie, that book sounds really interesting - will have to see if I can get my hands on a copy at the local library. Fellside being a poor area would fit my Troughtons - I think they were all weavers.

Good...making progress!! 

Jill

[Brie]

Jill,

I have just found another book which is probably easier to find. It is by Arthur Nicholls who has written loads about Kendal and is called Discover Kendal published by The Westmorland Gazette in 2004 and fortunately this time I have it to hand!

The book consists of historical walks around Kendal. The second one is Fellside 'The Auld Grey Town' The street names on the map for this walk are Stoney Lane, Serpentine Rd, Fell Brow, Mount Pleasant, High Tenterfell, Captain French Lane, Collin Croft, Allhallows Lane, Low Fellside, Fountain Brow, Sepulchre Lane, Rosemary Lane.

Hope this helps identify the area

Brie

[Brie]

Jill

"The inhabitants of Fellside were, in the main, impoverished weavers, labourers, the poorest of the skilled and unskilled workers and paupers"

From Arthur Nicholls, 'Explore Kendal' published by Westmorland Gazette, 1996. A book of walks similar to his other one but this has several pages about the conditions and social history in Fellside

Brie

[jillruss]

Hi Brie,

This is exciting (doesn't take much!!). I've found most of them on the google map, and they're all in the area just south of Union Street.

It just makes everything a little more real! 

Thanks

Jill

[Brie]

Jill,

Just found some more about Fellside. This is from someone who in 1939 interviewed 3 women in their 80s who had lived in Fellside all their lives.

Apparently it was "a warren-like maze of ginnels" (have to say I still get lost in the ginnels and yards of Kendal today) "The homesteads seemed to prop themselves up by toppling about each other". "Linsey weaving was one of the most important cottage industries......Some of the bedrooms in these small cottages were so tiny that the doors had to be removed and access to the bed was achieved by taking a running jump over the bottom rail of the bedstead".

There were loads of pubs in the area and one thing that I've heard before about the area is that women mostly retained their maiden names and the men answered to by-names (which I think is a local term for a nickname). I hope for your sake they give their 'proper' names on official documents!

But boy were they tough, Auld Mally Birkett used to keep The Rule and Square public house at the bottom of Fountain Brow. As young woman she had accompanied her hubby to the wars. She was shipwrecked on the Irish coast and dragged ashore with help from a sheep dog. While on the road in France (possibly to the Peninsula War) she got out of the cart to give birth, child didn't survive and Mally continued the journey.

This is all from a book called Memories of Old Kendal by Jack O'Connor published by The Westmorland Gazette in 1961 and 1962. Another for the library list.  The 1962 copy has a chapter entitled "Old Fellside - Its Life, Industry and Customs and another chapter "Some Fellside Characters of Bygone Days"

Hope it helps give a flavour of Fellside - I must pull myself back to the present.

Brie

[jillruss]

Hi Brie,

It certainly does give me a flavour of Fellside - thanks so much for that.

It's funny - I've come across Mally as a familiar of Mary in West Yorks (Huddersfield area) and , of course, Scottish women tended to keep their maiden names. Both areas surrounding Westmoreland and obviously customs overlapped.

Fascinating stuff - just wish that the 1787 census returns for this area had survived but not to worry. They did survive for the Clifton area - my Edward Troughton married a Dodd from Clifton, so I've found a few of them, including Quakers.

Thanks again,
Jill