The Dowker Bindloss Charity

Purpose:
The relief, either generally or individually, of persons resident in the Town and Parish of Kendal who are in conditions of need, hardship or distress by making grants of money or paying for items, services or facilities calculated to relieve such need, hardship or distress.

Trustees:
Councillors of Kendal Town Council

Administrator:
Kendal Town Treasurer

History:
The Dowker Bindloss Charity was formed in 1987 from the merger of two long-established charities. As is the case with many older charities, this union was formed to increase the amassed funds, and make the charity more beneficial to more people.

One of the original charities was the Miss Dowker’s Spinsters Hospital, a home for poor and unmarried women. The charity was established in 1831 when Dorothy Dowker bequeathed £3,000 to the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of Kendal. In her will Miss Dowker staed that the trustees should “nominate six females of good and chaste character, born in the borough of Kendal, having attained 50 years of age, without having been married and whose situation in life should require some assistance”.

In 1833 at the bottom of Highgate – where the entrance to Dowker’s Lane car park now stands – a house was built in which the six women resided. Between the austerity of Victorian society and the strict rules and regulations of the hospital the spinsters were kept in order. Strict instructions on cleaning and a curfew of 9:00pm were enforced by the charity’s trustees. If the women did not abide by these rules they would forfeit their right to financial assistance and their place in the house.When the Dowker Hospital was demolished to make way for a car park, the archway of the front door was preserved and, after lying for some time in Kendal Museum, it was incorporated into Websters Yard, the housing development off Highgate.

The second component of the new charity was the will of Agnes Sarah Bindloss in 1895. Originally established for the distribution of blankets to the poor at New Year, the charity’s trustees, – the Mayor and six Aldermen – nominated one or two people from the six wards of the town to receive blankets.

The current balance of these funds is around £25,000. Requests from people or organisations from within Kendal for a grant from this charity will be considered by the Council, providing its use is within the purpose set out above.