Explore the history around Highgate

Explore the history around Highgate. . Kendal's yards were a unique architectural and planning feature of the town. There were once about 150 yards leading off the main street, all of them different., Tradition has that they were built with their narrow entrances as a defensive measure against Scottish marauders, but this is just a tale, as the last Scots raid was in 1745 and the yards were not built until the end the 18th century., The true explanation is that the yards were originally medieval burgage plots, (meaning a piece of land held in for rent or service to the Baron), which stretched back from the main street up to the fellside or down to the river. There would be a large house on the street with gardens, orchards and stabling for horses behind it. The Brewery Arts Centre garden gives a faint picture of how these burgage plots might have looked. Some of the owners' names linger on as Manning's Yard and Collin Croft; but later the yards were numbered., [remaining text missing], Photograph captions , Dr. Manning had his practice in the yard for many years in the early 1900s., The Bank of Westmorland opened in 1833 with a capital of £250,000 and moved here in 1835., Dr. Manning's Yard was a community of cottages, workshops, and Braithwaite's woollen mill., Collin Croft is one of the few typical Kendal yards to survive., The Bluecoat School taught the sons of the more prominent townsmen to read and write., Thomas Sandes founded the hospital Almshouse for eight poor widows of good reputation.