Kendal homes with a fascinating story
History of 1/2 Romney Road Kendal
KENDAL historian Arthur R. Nicholls
recalls how the alms houses in Romney Road came to be built.
People often question why Romney Road, from Milnthorpe Road to the Nether roundabout at Kendal is so wide. When it was built it connected to the old pedestrian suspension bridge over the river and there were plans to convert it to a road bridge which never came to fruition.
The houses along the road are quite ordinary except for numbers 1&2, a semi-detached pair with steep twin gables.
recalls how the alms houses in Romney Road came to be built.
People often question why Romney Road, from Milnthorpe Road to the Nether roundabout at Kendal is so wide. When it was built it connected to the old pedestrian suspension bridge over the river and there were plans to convert it to a road bridge which never came to fruition.
The houses along the road are quite ordinary except for numbers 1&2, a semi-detached pair with steep twin gables.
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Dated 1928, they are thought to have been designed by George Hoggarth. Each house has a living room and scullery, two bedrooms and a bathroom.
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A plaque in the centre of the houses reads: "The John Aston Watkins Alms Houses" and this indicates a fascinating story.
The houses were built under the instruction of the will of Mary Agnes Watkins, nee Myerscough, whose husband, John Aston Watkins was a barrister from Tasmania
The residents, not exceeding four, were to be of either sex, married or single, 50 or over and were not to be ineligible on grounds of religion or because they were receiving the old age pension.They could use the gardens, received a weekly sum from the trustees, and could be expelled at a month's notice.
Simon Myerscough, Mary Agnes’s Father who died in 1835, was an established citizen of Kendal.
In 1829 he is recorded as an agent for James Machell & Co, who operated boats from
Canal Head to London, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Lancaster and all parts of the South and to Wales. He lived and operated from Lowther Street.
The family was not wealthy. His wife, Dorothy, was an annuitant, their daughter, Charlotte was a dressmaker. They also took in a lodger.
John Watkins,Mary's husband, came from a Catholic family in Monmouth, which emigrated to Australia, arriving at Sydney in 1840. His father, John, was a clockmaker. He emigrated to Tasmania where he married Mary Myerscough, from Kendal,
in the Catholic Chapel in Hobart Town.
He became Marshal of the Vice-Admiralty Court and was Registrar of that and the Supreme Court. He died of cancer in 1866 at the young age of 49. They had no children.
Mary continued to live in Hobart before returning with her mother and sisters to the family home in 26 Lowther Street, where the 1881 census shows her as the head of the household.
Mary Agnes died in 1908 and in her will left money to establish almshouses for poor residents of Kendal.
Mary and John bought a house called Atherfield in New Norfolk Tasmania Australia
in 1864 for 400 pounds
In 1829 he is recorded as an agent for James Machell & Co, who operated boats from
Canal Head to London, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Lancaster and all parts of the South and to Wales. He lived and operated from Lowther Street.
The family was not wealthy. His wife, Dorothy, was an annuitant, their daughter, Charlotte was a dressmaker. They also took in a lodger.
John Watkins,Mary's husband, came from a Catholic family in Monmouth, which emigrated to Australia, arriving at Sydney in 1840. His father, John, was a clockmaker. He emigrated to Tasmania where he married Mary Myerscough, from Kendal,
in the Catholic Chapel in Hobart Town.
He became Marshal of the Vice-Admiralty Court and was Registrar of that and the Supreme Court. He died of cancer in 1866 at the young age of 49. They had no children.
Mary continued to live in Hobart before returning with her mother and sisters to the family home in 26 Lowther Street, where the 1881 census shows her as the head of the household.
Mary Agnes died in 1908 and in her will left money to establish almshouses for poor residents of Kendal.
Mary and John bought a house called Atherfield in New Norfolk Tasmania Australia
in 1864 for 400 pounds
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For most of the 1800s Atherfield was an inn, first known as the Help Me On Inn, then the Ark Inn. As this was the time when convicts were frequently transported past the Inn. There are 2 stone cells underneath the house. Later they were used for food preparation, you can see 2 sandstone troughs which were used for salting beef. The salt has caused the sandstone to deteriorate. |