"Old Hall Near Milnthorpe Westmoreland September 19th 1874"
Milnthorpe is a village, civil parish, and former market town in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. It is 7 miles (11 km) south of Kendal. Historically in the county of Westmorland and on the A6, the village contains several old hostelries and hosts a market every Friday. The parish, which includes the village of Ackenthwaite, had a population of 2,199 according to the 2011 Census. Milnthorpe was granted a market charter in 1334, although this lapsed in the 1920s. Milnthorpe was part of the township of Heversham-with Milnthorpe, and was in Heversham parish until 1896.The 19th-century Church of St Thomas, which overlooks The Green and The Square, was designed by Kendal architect George Webster.Milnthorpe became a centre of business and activity because it was originally a port, using the River Bela and estuary (now only navigable to Arnside) and it remains a significant commercial centre for the are
Tourism is a major contributor to the local economy. Milnthorpe had coaching inns on the main road north, the modern A6. The village used to be a major traffic bottleneck before the opening of the M6 motorway in 1970, and the A590/A591 Kendal link road a few years later. The congestion at Milnthorpe' cross roads was notoriously amongst the worst in the North West.The village is just outside the Arnside and Silverdale National Landscape (formerly AONB), with the River Bela forming its northern boundary.
The popular children's drink Um Bongo was made in Milnthorpe by Libby's in the 1980s. Milnthorpe is the home of Duralon Combs, a comb manufacturing business over 300 years old. Big Fish Internet Ltd (formerly BF Internet, now trading as BFI) was founded in Milnthorpe in 1996 and is now located 2 miles (3.2 km) away in Sandside; it is the longest-established web design company in the UK. The village has a branch of the family-owned supermarket Booths.
Milnthorpe market was revived in the 1980s and for some years contributed substantially to the parish council's income through stall rentals. In the 21st century the market has reduced in size, reducing the council's income, but it is still held weekly, with a monthly farmers' market.
The Grade I listed house Dallam Tower, with an estate known for its deer, stands near to the River Bela just south-west of Milnthorpe, although in the parish of Beetham. The grade II listed St Anthony's Tower may be seen on the top of St Anthony's Hill to the north-east of the village centre. There are a total of nine grade II listed buildings or structures in the parish, including a footbridge over the River Bela, built in 1730 as a road bridge.Just to the north is Levens Hall, famed for its topiary.
Mary Keightley (1854-1946) was the youngest daughter of Archibald Keightley (1795-1877), executor of Sir Thomas Lawrence’s estate. She was a good amateur artist. Archibald Keightley (1795-1877), who was a solicitor who was the executor for Sir Thomas Lawrence, who had died earlier in 1830. Mr Keightley was responsible for the sale of Sir Thomas's collections, some of which were not paid for! There is a very interesting story about Sir Thomas's collection of old master drawings which were part of the assets Mr Keightley hadto dispose of. Following his work as a solicitor, Mr Keightley a few years later became the Registrar for the Charterhouse School, where he remained for 39 years.
Mary Keightley was born in 1854, in Charterhouse, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom, her father, Archibald Keightley, was 58 and her mother, Sarah Elizabeth Yates, was 41. She lived in London, England for about 20 years and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, United Kingdom in 1891. She died on 20 April 1946, in Camberley, Surrey, England, United Kingdom, at the age of 93.