Lindsay Altham Kidd died on February 21 2025, at Croft Avenue Care home, Penrith, aged 92 years.
He was a leading Penrith businessman whose life encompassed a wide range of occupations and interests that included Fleet Air Arm pilot, highways engineer, district councillor, company and building society director and churchman.
The principal part of his working life was spent as head of Althams, the old-established Penrith ironmongers and builders’ merchants, which he revived, expanded and finally moved from the centre of town to the fifteen acre site on Ullswater Road Estate, by which time he had increased the number of staff from 33 to 84.
The company operates nowadays as part of the JT Atkinson organisation.
Lindsay was born in Carleton Terrace, Penrith. His father Arthur, was managing director of Penrith Farmers’ and Kidd’s Auction Company and his mother Kathleen was a granddaughter of Thomas Altham, joint founder in 1844 of ironmongers Martindale and Altham which later became Thomas Altham and Son.
The family moved to live at Ennim mansion, near Blencowe, where during the Second World War they accommodated a school for evacuees and for which his mother acted as cook.
Lindsay attended a prep school, the Leas School, Hoylake, which had been evacuated to the Glenridding Hotel, Ullswater his accommodation being at Moss Crag and then went on to board at Repton School near Derby.
There he was captain of shooting and won a number of prizes. His housemaster was Frank Fisher, son of the Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher, who sometimes joined the boys on carol singing outings.
Following in the footsteps of his father, who was a fighter pilot in the First World War, Lindsay joined the Fleet Air Arm and trained as a pilot.
All his flight training was in America, at Pensacola, Florida and Corpus Christi, Texas. From there he went on to fly Grumman Hellcats, the last generation of piston-engine fighters.
Lindsay’s military flying was ended for medical reasons and he returned to Penrith to join Penrith Farmers’ and Kidd’s.
He qualified as a chartered surveyor, FRICS, but later decided to go into civil engineering with the highways department of Cumberland County Council. There he qualified as MIHT and spent much of his time working on the route survey and early design of the M6 Penrith bypass.
He continued flying, as a private pilot, In the early 1960s, he was Commanding Officer of the Penrith Air Training Corps squadron. He often took cadets flying, occasionally on “bombing” competitions which involved bags of flour dropped from 100ft on to oil drums.
As well as private flying, Lindsay joined the Scottish Parachute Club. On his second jump he broke a leg and it was while recovering in 1965 that he decided to put his qualifications to one side and go into the Althams business, which had fallen into very poor shape.
As general manager he brought the business round and carried out significant extensions to the property in Sandgate.
The position was precarious because the property, including foundry and smithy premises in Albert Street, was blighted by a proposed Penrith inner ring road scheme (which included a fly-over crossing in the middle of Sandgate). The premises also came within a designated town centre development area and to compound the difficulties, Penrith Urban Council was extremely cautious, and sometimes hostile, to any large business development.
After 11 years, planning permission to expand the business was granted for the site on Ullswater Road. It was won in two stages; in August, 1977, the builders’ merchants side relocated as Allied Cumbria Builders Merchants and in January, 1982, the home and gardens store was opened at the premises now occupied by Go Outdoors.
In 1991 the controlling interest was sold to Hartlepool-based JT Atkinson Ltd following a 20-year association between the two businesses.
Lindsay was associated with several other prominent Penrith businesses. He was a director of Penrith Farmers’ and Kidd’s from 1977 to 2003; a director of Penrith Building Society for a similar period, becoming vice-chairman; and for 15 years was chairman of the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald. He was also a governor of Wetheriggs (now North Lakes) and the former County Boys’ schools at Penrith.
Lindsay was a former president of Penrith Chamber of Trade and for three years a member of Eden District Council after it came into being as a result of local government reorganisation in 1973. He topped the poll in his ward.
In an episode that attracted local headlines he was the self-confessed ringleader of a group of Penrith traders who took matters into their own hands when nobody else was doing anything to stop traffic using the narrow cobbled ginnel between Devonshire Street and Burrowgate.
They blocked it with a one-ton 4ft concrete pipe with soil and plants in the top. The obstruction had to be removed, but the point was made and traffic was officially banned shortly afterwards.
Shooting was Lindsay’s favourite sport. He was a sporting shooter and an expert .303 rifleman, winning a number of competitions including the Barker Cup in 1958 held on the old Troutbeck (Mellfell) rifle range.
As a fisherman he was especially keen on spring angling, on Yorkshire Fly and Penrith waters.
Music was another interest and he enjoyed playing the piano. He was a founder member and former president of Penrith Savoyards and in 1959 performed in their first production of The Mikado. He went on to appear in over 40 shows.
In later years Lindsay’s greatest involvement was in the church. He was a churchwarden and sidesman at St Andrew’s parish church and treasurer of both the parochial church council and the local branch of the Children’s Society.
His conviction in Christianity being reinforced in the 1990s when he became involved in helping Bosnian refugees who came to Penrith.
To mark the year 2000, Lindsay and his late wife Mary commissioned a millennium stained glass window for St Andrew’s Church. It was designed by Christine Boyce, based on an original design by Lindsay.
He is survived by his two daughters, Catherine Davies and Liz Barrett, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren and sister Sheila Edwards.
The funeral service will be held at St Andrew’s Church, Penrith, on Friday, March 14 at 11.30am. Walkers Funeral Directors Penrith are handling arrangements.
