Kendal both poles of the Earth, its popularity is mainly due to the very astute decision of the original manufacturer's great-nephew to market it as an energy food, and to supply Ernest Shackleton's 1914–17 Trans-Antarctic Expedition. By the time the business was sold to competitor Romney's in 1987 there were several rival mint cake producers, many of which are still in business. Snuff production in Kendal dates from 1792, when Kendalian Thomas Harrison returned from Glasgow, Scotland, where he had learned the art of snuff manufacture. He also brought with him 50 tons of second-hand equipment, all carried on horse back.
Keighley and Kendal Turnpike and dressed sandstone for masonry and factories that imported coal welcomed the turnpike for access to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Gargrave. At Kirkby Lonsdale the route met a turnpike from Milnthorpe on the coast, and in 1818 the Keighley to Kendal Trust and the Kirkby Lonsdale to Milnthorpe Trust were amalgamated. Beyond Kirkby Lonsdale the turnpike did not prefigure the A65; rather its route is the B6254, passing Mansergh/Old Town, Old Hutton and Oxenholme to reach Kendal. Early travellers to Kendal complained of eight miles of "nothing but a confused mixture of Rockes and Boggs" Horseback was the