Black Swan

Today's the day ........................ for a sign

There's been an inn on this site since at least 1611 because a map of the town from that date, shows it clearly - making it one of the earliest recorded Kendal inns.

The Black Swan name probably only dates from the late 1880s and according to a Westmorland Gazette article dated 1882, came from the newly discovered Black Swans of Australia. The sign at the front of the inn would have originally been a model of one of these birds.

It was presumably never imagined that one of these glorious birds would become quite a familiar sight on the River Kent in the middle of the town .....................