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Kendal Parish Church
Kendal Parish Church
Holy Trinity Church, Kendal
	Kendal Parish Church Kendal Parish Church
	54°19′21″N 2°44′41″W / 54.3225°N 2.7446°W
Location	Kendal, Cumbria, England
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Website	kendalparishchurch.co.uk
History
Status	Active
Architecture
Functional status	Parish church
Heritage designation	Grade I listed
Designated	24 April 1951
Completed	1201
Specifications
Capacity	1100
Administration
Province	Province of York
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Revd Canon Shanthi Thompson
Assistant priest(s)	Revd Ashley Henderson
Asst Curate(s)	Revd Rob McLellan

Kendal Parish Church, also known as the Holy Trinity Church due to its dedication to the Holy Trinity, is the Anglican parish church of Kendal, Cumbria, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.^[1]

Visitors to the church are struck by its size and the lightness of the interior. This lightness is due to the unusual construction of five aisles, separated by columns and allowing generous window area.^[2]

The nave is 800 years old and the other aisles have been added over the centuries so that, in its heyday, a congregation of 1100 was regularly accommodated.

History

Anglo-Saxon church

The Domesday Book refers to a church built on the site during the Anglo-Saxon period. It has been suggested that the Anglo-Saxons used material "robbed out" from the ruined Roman fort at Watercrook to the south of the town.^[3] The shaft of an Anglian cross, housed in the Parr Chapel, is dated at approximately AD 850.^[3]

Norman church onwards

Westmorland was only subdued by the Normans in 1092 and Ivo Taillebois (Anglicized, the name is translated to John Talbot) became the first Norman Baron of Kentdale,^[4] he gave the church and its lands to St Mary's Abbey in York.^[3] In 1189, the inhabitants of Kendal were massacred in church by Duncan, Earl of Fife.

The arch over the piscina was found carved with the date 1201 during Victorian restoration (1829). The building dates from at least 1232 according to written sources, with a record from this year referencing an indulgence issued for fabric repairs.^[1]

The Parr Chapel was built by the Parr family in the fourteenth century, and the family coats of arms are to be seen on the ceiling.^[3] The maidenheads also featured on the walls had long been associated with the Parr family badge/arms. The device of a maidens head couped below the breast vested in ermine and gold; her hair of the last, or; and her head encircled with a wreath of red and white roses was taken from the Ros of Kendal family (ancestors of the Parrs). The large tomb in this chapel is that of William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Kendal, grandfather of Catherine Parr, the last queen consort of King Henry VIII.^[3]

Organs

The church contains two organs:

at the West end, the main organ by J.W. Walker 1969 (45/3M+P) incorporating a 19th-century instrument by Willis^[5]
at the East end, the choir organ by Bevington c.1885 (11/2M+P) was bought in 2002