Ambleside | |
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![]() Rydal Road, Ambleside town centre | |
Location within Cumbria | |
Area | 1.238 km2 (0.478 sq mi) |
Population | 2,596 (2020 estimate) |
• Density | 2,097/km2 (5,430/sq mi) |
OS grid reference | NY375037 |
Civil parish | |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county |
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Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | AMBLESIDE |
Postcode district | LA22 |
Dialling code | 015394 |
Police | Cumbria |
Fire | Cumbria |
Ambulance | North West |
UK Parliament | |
Ambleside is a town and former civil parish (now in the parish of Lakes) in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Westmorland and located in the Lake District National Park, the town sits at the head of Windermere, England's largest natural lake. In 2020 it had an estimated population of 2,596. [2]
Ambleside is within the unitary authority Westmorland and Furness, and is also part of the Lakes civil parish. Ambleside was formerly a township, [3] in 1866 Ambleside became a civil parish in its own right [4] until it was abolished on 1 April 1974 to form Lakes. [5] In 1961 the parish had a population of 2562. [6]
From 1894 to 1935, Ambleside formed its own urban district. [7]
"Steamers" are the throwback name for the ferries (diesel-propelled) which run most days to Bowness-on-Windermere and Lakeside offering fine views of the lake and the mountains – see Waterhead locality below.
Ambleside is a base for hiking, mountaineering and mountain biking. It has several hotels, guest houses, restaurants and shops. Specialist shops sell equipment, guides and give recommendations to walkers, backpackers and climbers. Ambleside is a popular starting point for the Fairfield horseshoe, a hillwalking ridge hike.
A concentration of ten pubs or bars within a quarter-mile radius reflects how the local hospitality market serves residents, tourists, visitors and the student population associated with the University of Cumbria.
The town's name is derived from the Old Norse "Á-mel-sǽtr" which literally translates as "river – sandbank – summer pasture". [8]
To the south of Ambleside is the Roman fort of Galava, dating from AD 79. [9]
In 1650 the town was granted a charter [10] to hold a market. In the reign of James II, another charter was granted for the town to collect tolls. [11] The town's Market Place became the commercial centre for agriculture and the wool trade. The old packhorse trail between Ambleside and Grasmere was the main route between the two towns before the new turnpike road was completed in 1770. Smithy Brow at the end of the trail was where pack ponies were re-shod after their journey. With the coming of the turnpikes, the packhorse trains were superseded by horse-drawn stagecoaches, which regularly travelled between Keswick and Kendal via Ambleside. [12]
The Samling Hotel was built in the 1780s, then called the "Dove Nest". [13]
Ambleside & District Golf Club founded in 1903 ended in the late 1950s; Windermere Golf Club is a few miles along the lake's east side. [14]
The Armitt Library and Museum opened in 1912 in memory of Sophia and Mary Louisa Armitt is notable as a resource for history. Its main resident collection overviews Lake District artists and writers with display panels, photographs and copies of their key works, and some originals of minor works. [15]
Bridge House was built over Stock Ghyll more than 300 years ago, probably as a summer house and apple store for Ambleside Hall. It was purchased by local people in 1926 and given to the National Trust. Listed Grade I, the building is now used as an information centre for the National Trust, and is part of the Trust's Windermere and Troutbeck property. [16] [17]
The building was depicted by the Victorian landscapist Lewis Pinhorn Wood (1848–1918) in his late 19th century work The Cobbler's Shop on the Bridge.
A shared Church of England and Methodist church. Before the 17th century the dead of Ambleside were buried at St Martin's Church, Bowness-on-Windermere, Ambleside then gained the right to its own registers and had a chapel dedicated to St Anne. This was too small to accommodate the enlarged Anglican congregations as tourism boomed from the Kendal and Windermere Railway opened in 1847. [18] St Mary's Church was built in the 1850s to a design by George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic Revival style. [19] Notable features include:
Early 20th century Vicar, Henry Adamson Thompson, is depicted on the right of the mural. [22] [23] His body and that of his only son, Henry Lionel Francess Thompson – killed in World War II – share the same part of the churchyard. [24]
Other burials include Annie, Sophia and Mary Louisa Armitt. [15]
The town's many decades-old Catholic Church in a traditional design is a consolidation of two churches; until 2013 nearby Grasmere held services, whose reverend, Kevan Dorgan of Windermere was translated to the consolidated parish. His predecessor, who retired, was David Duanne.
The Ambleside campus of the University of Cumbria, formerly St. Martin's College and Charlotte Mason College, is at the northern end of the town; courses held at the campus include Conservation, Forestry, and Outdoor Studies.
On 1 December 2009, it was announced that the Ambleside campus would be 'mothballed' at the end of July 2010, and would no longer take new undergraduate students. The closure was in the face of fierce opposition from the Ambleside students, [25] the townspeople, and support pledged from Tim Farron, MP for the campus and its students. [26] [27] [28]
In July 2011, the university announced a plan to reopen the campus and increase student numbers at the Ambleside campus beginning in 2014. [29] In September 2014, the newly refurbished campus was reopened.
Brathay Exploration Group, a youth charity, mainly meets at associated Clappersgate.
Ambleside Pier at Waterhead, about one mile south of the town centre, is a boarding point for Windermere Lake Cruises on Windermere. Services run year-round connecting to Bowness-on-Windermere and Lakeside. Between March and October, a second service operates to the Brockhole Lake District Visitor Centre and Wray Castle. [30] [31]
Waterhead has hotels, cafés, boat hire establishments and the YHA youth hostel. [32] It is mostly green buffered from the town, including by copses of mature trees.
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North West and ITV Border. Television signals are received from one of the two local relay TV transmitters (Windermere [33] and Hawkshead [34] ).
Local radio stations are BBC Radio Cumbria 104.2 FM, Heart North West on 102.3 FM, Smooth Lake District on 100.8 FM, and Lake District Radio that broadcast online from its studios in Kendal. [35]
The town is served by the local newspapers, The Westmorland Gazette and North West Evening Mail. [36]
William Wordsworth worked in Ambleside, as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, from 1813, while living at Rydal Mount in the nearby village of Rydal. [37] This government position induced Shelley to write a sonnet of mild reprimand, To Wordsworth , but it gave an income other than poetry. In 1842, he became the Poet Laureate and resigned his office. [37]
In 1846 Harriet Martineau moved into her new house, “The Knoll,” where she lived until her death in 1876. [38] "Something of a Victorian superstar," she was a professional woman, international correspondent, ran a micro-farm on her property and formed and worked for a Property Association which helped working families in the neighborhood build their own homes. Her winter lectures packed the Methodist Church beside her home.
The author Mairin Mitchell (1895–1986) was born at Ambleside, the daughter of Dr Thomas Houghton Mitchell, a local GP. [39]
Artist Kurt Schwitters was resident for 2+1⁄2 years until his death in January 1948. Under legislation to lower the risk of well-covered sympathiser spies he was interned in the Isle of Man for 14 months of World War II after fleeing Nazi Germany to Norway which was invaded in 1940; his release to London was secured with A. Dorner of Rhode Island School of Design's attestation and sponsorship.
Locomotive manufacturer Edward Bury (died 1858) and his wife Priscilla Susan.
The poet Dorothy Gurney wrote the words to the popular wedding hymn "O Perfect Love" at Pullwyke near Ambleside.
The town maintains the Langdale & Ambleside MRT, one of the busiest volunteer mountain rescue teams nationally.
Bus services from Ambleside are operated predominantly by Stagecoach Cumbria. Key routes are: [41]
The nearest National Rail station is at Windermere, which provides services to Oxenholme and Manchester Airport. [45]
Ambleside features an oceanic climate, but being within the Lake District it does experience higher annual rainfall than the average for the North-West of England. Parts of the town have been flooded on numerous occasions, with the River Rothay breaking its banks during Storm Desmond in December 2015.
Climate data for Ambleside (1991–2020) | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 7.0 (44.6) | 7.7 (45.9) | 9.3 (48.7) | 12.8 (55.0) | 16.2 (61.2) | 18.4 (65.1) | 20.2 (68.4) | 20.0 (68.0) | 17.1 (62.8) | 13.3 (55.9) | 9.9 (49.8) | 7.4 (45.3) | 13.3 (55.9) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 1.2 (34.2) | 1.7 (35.1) | 2.6 (36.7) | 4.5 (40.1) | 7.0 (44.6) | 10.0 (50.0) | 11.8 (53.2) | 11.7 (53.1) | 9.6 (49.3) | 6.8 (44.2) | 3.8 (38.8) | 1.9 (35.4) | 6.1 (43.0) |
Average rainfall mm (inches) | 235.3 (9.26) | 205.3 (8.08) | 157.9 (6.22) | 101.4 (3.99) | 100.8 (3.97) | 118.3 (4.66) | 128.9 (5.07) | 157.8 (6.21) | 162.8 (6.41) | 224.3 (8.83) | 236.2 (9.30) | 274.0 (10.79) | 2,102.9 (82.79) |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 47.0 | 65.2 | 97.3 | 140.9 | 161.8 | 158.5 | 143.4 | 136.9 | 99.5 | 72.8 | 53.3 | 48.6 | 1,225.2 |
Source: Met Office [46] |
Westmorland is an area of Northern England which was historically a county. People of the area are known as Westmerians. The area includes part of the Lake District and the southern Vale of Eden.
Windermere is a ribbon lake in Cumbria, England, and part of the Lake District. It is the largest lake in England by length, area, and volume, but considerably smaller than the largest Scottish lochs and Northern Irish loughs.
Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. It lies within the River Kent's dale, from which its name is derived, just outside the boundary of the Lake District National Park.
Windermere is a town in the civil parish of Windermere and Bowness, in the Westmorland and Furness district in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England; it is within the Lake District National Park. The town lies about half a mile (1 km) east of the lake, Windermere, from which it takes its name. In 2021 it had a population of 4,826.
South Lakeland was a local government district in Cumbria, England, from 1974 to 2023. Its council was based in Kendal. The district covered the southern part of the Lake District region, as well as northwestern parts of the Yorkshire Dales. At the 2011 Census, the population of the district was 103,658, an increase from 102,301 at the 2001 Census.
Grasmere is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lakes, in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England, and situated in the centre of the Lake District and named after its adjacent lake. Grasmere lies within the historic county of Westmorland. The Ambleside and Grasmere ward had an estimated population of 4,592 in 2019. William and Dorothy Wordsworth, the 'Lake Poets', lived in Grasmere for 14 years and called it "the loveliest spot that man hath ever found."
Bowness-on-Windermere is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Windermere and Bowness, in the Westmorland and Furness district, in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England. It lies next to Windermere lake and the town of Windermere to the north east and within the Lake District National Park. The town was historically part of the county of Westmorland and it also forms an urban area with Windermere. The town had a population of 3,814 in the 2011 Census.
Oxenholme is a village in England just south of the town of Kendal, with which it has begun to merge. It is best known for Oxenholme Lake District railway station on the West Coast Main Line. By strict English definition, Oxenholme is a hamlet rather than a village, as it does not have a church.
Westmorland and Lonsdale is a constituency in the south of Cumbria, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Tim Farron, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats (2015–2017).
Coniston is a village and civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,058, decreasing at the 2011 census to 928. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is in the southern part of the Lake District National Park, between Coniston Water, the third longest lake in the Lake District, and Coniston Old Man.
Lakes is a civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness district, in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 5,127, decreasing at the 2011 census to 4,420. It covers the town of Ambleside, and the villages and hamlets of Clappersgate, Rydal, Grasmere, Troutbeck, Chapel Stile, Elterwater, Little Langdale and Waterhead.
South Westmorland was a rural district in Westmorland, England from 1894 to 1974. It saw various boundary changes during its existence, particularly in 1935, when it absorbed Kirkby Lonsdale urban district, whilst parts merged with Ambleside and Grasmere Urban Districts to form Lakes Urban District at the same time. The district was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, with the area becoming part of the South Lakeland district of Cumbria.
The Barony of Kendal is a subdivision of the English historic county of Westmorland. It evolved from one of two ancient baronies that make up the county, the other being the Barony of Westmorland. In 1974, the entire county became part of the modern county of Cumbria and ceased to have an administrative function. At the same time, Kendal borough along with some other rural and urban districts in Westmorland was merged with the neighbouring parts of Lancashire, Furness and Cartmel, and also the Sedbergh Rural District of the West Riding of Yorkshire into the new South Lakeland district of the new county.
Rydal is a village in Cumbria, England. It is a small cluster of houses, a hotel, and St Mary's Church, on the A591 road midway between Ambleside and Grasmere.
Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire operates both local and regional bus services in Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear, England, as well as Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, which operates bus, coach, rail and tram services across the United Kingdom.
Moses Bowness (1833–1894) was a Victorian photographer, farmer, entrepreneur and poet.
The Lakes Connection 555 is a bus route operated by Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire in Cumbria and Lancashire, England. The scenic route covers a distance of 45 miles (72 km) and runs between the towns of Keswick and Lancaster via Grasmere, Windermere, Kendal and Carnforth.
Troutbeck Bridge is a village in the civil parish of Windermere and Bowness, in the Westmorland and Furness district, in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England. It is situated 1 mile north of Windermere on the A591 road running through the Lake District and was historically in the county of Westmorland. The main secondary school for Windermere and Ambleside, The Lakes School, is located in the village, as is the postal sorting office for the area. Troutbeck Bridge takes its name from where the road crosses the Trout Beck.
St Mary's Church is in Ambleside, Cumbria, England. It was built in the 1850s to a design by George Gilbert Scott in Gothic Revival style . The building is Grade II* listed. Notable features include its stone spire, which is a local landmark and an unusual feature in Lake District churches.