Barony of Kendal

The Barony of Kendal is a subdivision of the English traditional county of Westmorland. It is one of two ancient baronies which make up the county, the other being the Barony of Westmorland (also known as North Westmorland, or the Barony of Appleby). Since 1974, the entire county is part of the modern county of Cumbria, and has no administrative function. At the same time, Kendal borough was merged with the neighbouring parts of Lancashire, Furness and Cartmell, into the new South Lakeland district of the new county.

The barony is the remnant of the feudal barony whose caput was at Kendal castle. The feudal barony had its own complex evolution, determined by the evolution of the families which owned it. For some purposes it therefore was once considered to include parts of the Barony of Westmorland which were possessed by the original lords of Kendal, such as at least parts of the ancient parishes of Barton St Michael, and Morland.

In modern times, before it was scrapped, the barony came to be divided into two administrative wards, Kendal and Lonsdale, centred around the old church towns of Kendal (sometimes referred to historically as Kirkby Kendal), and Kirkby Lonsdale, which are respectively geographically centred upon the valleys ("dales") of the rivers Kent and Lune. The parishes of the two wards are as follows:

• Kendal ward: Ambleside, Burton-in-Kendal, Grasmere, Grayrigg, Kentmere, Kendal, Windermere. (The parish of Kendal itself was large and contained 20 townships.)
• Lonsdale ward: Kirkby Lonsdale