Castle Dairy

Today's the day ............................ to refurbish

This is the Castle Dairy, a 14th century hall-house - the oldest occupied house in Kendal.

It contains coats-of-arms of the Parr (as in 6th wife of Henry VIII) and Strickland families and was probably given by Sir Thomas Parr to his daughter Agnes as part of her dowry when she married his steward, Sir Thomas Strickland in about 1455. The name Dairy may well be a corruption of the word dowry rather than anything to do with milk and cream.

It was embellished as a gentleman's residence in the 16th century and extended at the rear in the 17th and 18th centuries but since then it has remained fairly unchanged.

Unchanged, that is, until recently - when it underwent a major £200,000 refurbishment. Now, it is once again welcoming people through its doors - this time as a restaurant, patisserie and art gallery, managed and run by apprentices from Kendal College...........................