The Cross Keys Milnthorpe, now a hotel, was originally built in the sixteenth century and rebuilt after a fire in 1821. At one time, it was the largest hotel between Kendal and Lancaster, serving 20 coaches a day and attracting notable guests. Among them were the King of Saxony, the heir to the Russian throne, and Queen Adelaide, widow of William IV, who visited the hotel on July 24, 1840. Despite the arrival of the railway in 1846 reducing the significance of the coaching business, the Cross Keys remained a center of social life thanks to its ballroom, which could accommodate up to 70 people.