Eli Cox
(1838-1890)

Main Street Milnthorpe. Main Street connected the port of Milnthorpe on the Kent estuary, a mile to the west,with the ancient main road which ran through Crooklands three miles to the east. Until 1924 the street's buildings extended as far as the traffic island, Flowerden House, now on the corner, was designed by Eli Cox and built, in 1880, for Mrs Agnes Bindloss whose husband William was five times Mayor of Kendal. A date stone in the backyard inscribed 'E+Kitchen 1807' refers to Mrs Bindloss' grandfather who erected an earlier property on the site. Following the death of the last private resident Mrs Ethel McLeod in 1955, Flowerden became the venue for the Bela and Heversham Freemasons' Lodges.

1 Main Street, Milnthorpe, United Kingdom where they designed (1880)

THE INSTITUTE. Originally called the Kitching Memorial Reading Rooms, the Institute was provided at a cost of £2,000 in 1881 by Mrs Elizabeth Bindloss to commemorate her brother Dr John Kitching, a distinguished London Surgeon, who had been born in Milnthorpe. Designed by Eli Cox it was adorned with elaborate internal plasterwork, barley sugar twisted drainpipe and the busts of Shakespeare and Milton on either side of the entrance. The accommodation included a library, magistrate's court, chess and billiards rooms. In 1921 the property was purchased from the Bindloss family by a village committee for use as a 'Working Men's Institute'. When membership declined the property was converted into flats in 2007. Inset in the rear wall is Milnthorpe's oldest date-stone inscribed C R A 1691 rescued from a previous building on this site.

Beetham Road, Milnthorpe, United Kingdom where they designed (1881)