Following the submission of a planning application to carry out alterations to 118-120 Highgate, Kendal, Cumbria, a condition was placed requiring an archaeological building recording. Greenlane Archaeology was commissioned to carry out the work, which was undertaken in January 2026. Today, the site comprises a single building, established as a youth hostel in the late 20th century, but it originated as two substantial town houses. No 118 is considered to have been built by the Wilson family of Dallam Tower, probably Daniel Wilson following his marriage to Elizabeth Crowle in 1716 and before his death in 1754. The origins of No 120 are less well known but it was certainly the property of the Braithwaite family, who ran a dry salting business in the town. No 118 is known to have become the site of Whitwell (later Whitwell and Marks) brewery from perhaps as early as 1757, and this expanded with the creation of a new range of brewery buildings to the rear in 1853 and the conversion of the former Wilson house into offices in 1864. No 120 continued to be owned by the Braithwaite family into the 19th century and was later used as a boarding house. It is not clear when they became joined to form a single property but certainly by the late 20th century, perhaps as early as 1972, they were converted into a youth hostel and at the same time the former brewery buildings to the rear became the Brewery Arts Centre. The building recording revealed that while much original fabric remains within the building, including what appears to be much of the original early 18th century decorative scheme within the main ground floor room of No 118, a considerable amount of alteration occurred in the 20th century. This initially included the installation of a new front door in No 118, between 1911 and 1951, but also the creation of a new staircase in No 120 and addition of internal divisions to create toilets. Despite these changes the building retains important elements of original fabric. The current proposals are for relatively minimal alterations, which should not adversely affect this.
Elsworth et al. (Thu,) studied this question.