Kendal was a one of the country’s main manufacturing towns from the 14th Century until the 19th Century, with many mills on the River Kent. It is home to a multitude of historically exciting buildings. Including the parish church on the river side in Kirkland and a number of houses and office buildings designed and built by renowned local architects. Particularly notable are the 14th century Castle Dairy, Kendal Castle and Castle Howe, Abbot Hall Museum, Kendal Museum.

Abbot Hall, built in 1759, has an art gallery with paintings by Turner and Romney. The hall’s stable block contains the Museum of Lakeland life & Industry, with occasional workshops demonstrating local crafts and trades. There are dioramas  of geology and wildlife in the Kendal Museum.

Not far from Kendal you can find Levens Hall – Elizabethan Mansion. The outstanding attraction of this mansion is its topiary, the world’s oldest. The complex topiary, shaped into cones, spirals and pyramids, is kept in shape by gardeners.

However, the house itself also has much to offer. Built around a 13th-century tower, it contains fine Jacobean furniture and watercolors by landscape artist Peter de Wint (1784 -1849). Also of note are the ornate ceilings, Charles II dining chairs, the earliest example of English patchwork and gilded hearts of the drainpipes.