Burton Road is the main A65 road from Kendal to Burton-in-Kendal. Only a small part of the road falls within the boundaries of Oxenholme Village.

**Burton Road, approaching Oxenholme from the south. Image courtesy of Google Streetview May 2009**

Properties on eastern side of Burton Road

Heading southwards from the road bridge over the railway line, on the left-hand side:

Access to Helmside Road
Reading Room
Three terraced properties of Bleaswood Close (these front on to Burton Road but vehicle access is via Bleaswood Road).
Oxenholme Filling Station with three properties set back behind:
- Helm Grove
- Glen Daragh
- Sizergh View
Thurston
Moorfields
Underhill
Access to Rochester Gardens
Access lane leading to:
- Castle Mount
- Castlesteads
Castlesteads Lodge
Access lane leading to The Helm

**Oxenholme Filling Station, Burton Road 2011 Image courtesy of Google Street View 2011**

Mission Hall

The Railway Children’s Choir helped raise the £850 necessary to build the Mission Hall in 1906 on the Burton Road immediately opposite Helmside Cottages. Services were held there on Sunday afternoons and evenings.

The Natland and Oxenholme Women’s Institute was inaugurated there in 1921.

The Mission Hall closed in 1951 and is now home to T.J.S. Northern Ltd civil engineers and construction equipment hire.

**The former Mission Hall.** **Image courtesy of Google Street View 2011.**

Reading Room

The former Reading Room on the Burton Road, now a private residence, was provided by the Railway Company for use by the Railway Men’s Institute and a copy of the Lancashire Evening Post could be read there. The building was constructed around the same time as Helmside Cottages were built (1885).

John Bateson advises “Membership was open to all aged over 14 for 1/- and billiards and dominoes were provided. Originally there was a Bible class, but things religious were taken over by the Mission Hall in 1912. There was a children’s class, Mothers’ Union with baking, crochet etc. The pensioners’ club lasted until c 1985. It was also a polling station.”

At one point monies were raised in Natland and Oxenholme to convert the Reading Room to a Village Hall for both villages but the stables at St Mark’s Vicarage in Natland were chosen instead for the new Village Hall.

The Reading Room finally closed in the mid 1980s and became a residential property.

**The former Reading Room, Burton Road 2011 Image courtesy of Google Street View 2011**

Properties on western side of Burton Road

Heading northwards towards the road bridge over the railway line, on the left-hand side:

Broadlea
Hill Crest
Hillslea
Ormiston
Overdale
Rose Lea
Springfield
Thurston

Page last updated: 25 January 2020