Abbot Hall

Today's the day ............................... for some house history

This fine Georgian building on the banks of the River Kent in Kendal is known as Abbot Hall and it now houses a collection of paintings and other works of art.

It was built in 1759 by a Colonel George Wilson on the site of the old Abbot's Hall. Before the dissolution of the monasteries, this was where the Abbot or his representative would stay when visiting from the mother church of St Mary's, York.

It is not known who the architect of the new Abbot Hall was, and it was evidently not terribly successful as a home. The newly-married Wilsons moved out and went to York after just a few years, and then it was lived in by a succession of different families over the next century, finally being owned by a local bank at the end of the 19th century.

In 1897 Abbot Hall was acquired by the Kendal Borough Council who wanted to turn its grounds into a public park for the town. By the 1950s, it was almost derelict and threatened with demolition. A group of local people came together to form a charitable trust (now known as the Lakeland Arts Trust) in order to raise the money to save the building - and in 1962 it opened as an Art Gallery.

It's well worth a visit if you come to Kendal ..........................