Ambleside#St Mary's Church

The town's name is derived from the Old Norse "Á-mel-sǽtr" which literally translates as "river – sandbank – summer pasture".{{Cite web|url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Westmorland/Ambleside|title=Key to English Place-names|website=Kepn.nottingham.ac.uk}}

On the southern edge of Ambleside is the Roman fort of Galava, dating from AD 79.{{Cite web|url=https://www.visitcumbria.com/amb/galava-roman-fort/|title=Galava Roman Fort - Ambleside|website=Visitcumbria.com|access-date=22 January 2022}}

File:Market Hall, Ambleside (6788).jpg

In 1650 the town was granted a charter to hold a market.{{Cite web|url=http://www.amblesideonline.co.uk/history.shtml|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528235825/http://www.amblesideonline.co.uk/history.shtml|url-status=dead|title=Ambleside OnLine – a local history|archive-date=28 May 2010}} In the reign of James II, another charter was granted for the town to collect tolls.{{Cite web |url=http://www.lakedistricts.co.uk/ambleside |title=Ambleside | Lake District Guide |access-date=6 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402210349/http://www.lakedistricts.co.uk/ambleside |archive-date=2 April 2015 |url-status = dead|df=dmy-all }} 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 With the coming of the turnpikes, the packhorse trains were superseded by horse-drawn stagecoaches, which regularly travelled between Keswick and Kendal via Ambleside.{{cite news|url=http://www.golakes.co.uk/places/towns/ambleside-history.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100124140130/http://www.golakes.co.uk/places/towns/ambleside-history.aspx|url-status = dead|title=History of Ambleside|publisher=Golakes|access-date=24 June 2010|archive-date=24 January 2010|df=dmy-all}}

The Samling Hotel was built in the 1780s, then called the "Dove Nest".{{cite book |last1=Wood |first1=Jason |last2=Walton |first2=John K. |date=2016 |title=The Making of a Cultural Landscape: The English Lake District as Tourist Destination, 1750-2010 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nX61CwAAQBAJ&q=%22john+benson%22+wordsworth&pg=PA142|publisher= Routledge|page= 142|isbn=9781317024941}}

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.[http://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/england/north-west/cumbria/403-cumbria-ambleside-a-district-golf-club-loughrigg “Ambleside & District Golf Club”], “Golf's Missing Links”.

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.

File:Bridge House Ambleside.JPG

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.Bridge House – Information from a notice at Bridge House.{{NHLE|num= 1245148|desc= BRIDGE HOUSE |access-date = 23 July 2014}}

File:View of the cobbler's shop on the bridge, Ambleside (undated).jpg 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.

{{Main|St Mary's Church, Ambleside}}

File:Ambleside parish church.jpg

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.{{Cite web|url=http://openplaques.org/places/gb/areas/ambleside|title=Open Plaques|website=Openplaques.org}}

St Mary's Church was built in the 1850s to a design by George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic Revival style.{{Cite web|url=https://www.visitcumbria.com/amb/ambleside-st-marys-church/|title=St Mary's Church - Ambleside|website=Visitcumbria.com|access-date=22 January 2022}}

Notable features include:

• the stone spire, an unusual feature in Westmorland churches,
• the mural depicting rushbearing (a ceremony which is held on the first Saturday in July). The mural was created during World War II when the Royal College of Art was based in Ambleside.{{NHLE | num=1244784 | desc=Church of St Mary | access-date=17 March 2014}}Leslie Duxbury (2008), Bohemians in Exile: The Royal College of Art in Ambleside, 1940-1945. "Bohemians in Exile" was the title of a 2011 exhibition at the Armitt Museum.

Early 20th century Vicar, Henry Adamson Thompson, is depicted on the right of the mural.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=Adamson_Thompson|title=Adamson Thompson |website=Ancestry.com}}{{cite web|url=http://www.visitcumbria.com/wp-content/gallery/ambleside-st-marys-church/3-ambleside-stmary-rb.jpg|format=JPG|title=Photographic image|website=Visitcumbria.com|access-date=22 January 2022}} His body and that of his only son, Henry Lionel Francess Thompson – killed in World War II – share the same part of the churchyard.{{Cite web|url=https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204814649264407&id=1183757195&set=a.3504675653958.2163447.1183757195&ref=m_notif¬if_t=like&actorid=1453201640|title=Log In or Sign Up to View|website=m.facebook.com}}

Other burials include Annie, Sophia and Mary Louisa Armitt.Eileen Jay, ‘Armitt, Mary Louisa (1851–1911)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/53907, accessed 13 November 2015]

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.

"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.

File:Ambleside Campus, University of Cumbria (28th April 2019) 001.jpg

Ambleside is the main settlement within the civil parish of Lakes. There are two tiers of local government covering Lakes, at parish and unitary authority level: Lakes Parish Council and Westmorland and Furness Council. The parish council is based at Low Nook on Rydal Road, on the University of Cumbria's Ambleside campus.{{cite web |title=Contact us |url=https://www.lakesparish.co.uk/contact/ |website=Lakes Parish Council |access-date=19 April 2025}} The parish is wholly within the Lake District National Park, and so some functions are administered by the Lake District National Park Authority, notably planning.{{cite web |title=Planning |url=https://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/planning |website=Lake District National Park |access-date=10 April 2025}}

For national elections, Ambleside is within the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency.{{cite web |title=Election Maps |url=https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/election-maps/gb/ |publisher=Ordnance Survey |access-date=10 April 2025}}

Ambleside was historically a township in the ancient parish of Kendal in the historic county of Westmorland.{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/place/998|title=History of Ambleside, in South Lakeland and Westmorland|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|access-date=31 December 2021}} After the Reformation in the 16th century, the very large parish of Kendal was subdivided into smaller parishes, and Ambleside township thereafter straddled the parishes of Grasmere and Windermere.{{cite book |last1=Youngs |first1=Frederic |title=Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England: Volume 2 |date=1991 |publisher=Royal Historical Society |location=London |isbn=0 86193 127 0 |page=460}}{{cite book |title=Census of England and Wales, 1871: Volume 2 |date=1872 |publisher=Census Office |page=509 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Census_of_England_and_Wales_1871/oQQ4AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA509&printsec=frontcover |access-date=19 April 2025}} The boundary between the two new parishes followed the stream of Stock Ghyll through the middle of Ambleside.{{cite web |title=Westmorland Sheet XXVI |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/102347868 |website=National Library of Scotland |publisher=Ordnance Survey |access-date=19 April 2025 |date=1863}}

File:Former chapel on Kirkstone Road - geograph.org.uk - 6029336.jpg

The township of Ambleside took on civil functions under the poor laws from the 17th century onwards. As such, the township also became a civil parish in 1866, when the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws.{{cite book |last1=Youngs |first1=Frederic |title=Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England: Volume II, Northern England |date=1991 |publisher=Royal Historical Society |location=London |isbn=0861931270 |page=xv}}{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10059458|title=Relationships and changes Ambleside CP/Ch through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|access-date=31 December 2021}} In ecclesiastical terms, Ambleside township was served by a chapel of ease dedicated to St Anne, which was rebuilt in 1812.{{NHLE|desc=St Anne's Court|num=1313425|grade=II}} St Anne's was replaced by a much larger church dedicated to St Mary on a new site west of the town centre, which was completed in 1854.{{NHLE|desc=Church of St Mary|num=1244784|grade=II*}} The township of Ambleside was subsequently also made an ecclesiastical parish in 1863.{{London Gazette|issue=22771|page=4491|date=15 September 1863}}{{cite book |title=Kelly's Directory of Westmorland |date=1906 |page=15 |url=https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/42467/rec/3 |access-date=19 April 2025}}

Ambleside was made a local government district in 1884, administered by an elected local board.{{cite book |title=Annual Report of the Local Government Board |date=1885 |page=265 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Annual_Report_of_the_Local_Government_Bo/VRYwAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA265&printsec=frontcover |access-date=19 April 2025}} Such districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. Ambleside Urban District was abolished in 1935, when the area was merged with Grasmere Urban District and the civil parishes of Langdales, Patterdale, Rydal and Loughrigg, and Troutbeck to form Lakes Urban District. Ambleside was the largest settlement in the district and where the council was based.{{London Gazette|issue=45749|page=9656|date=11 August 1972}} After the 1935 reforms, Ambleside continued to form a civil parish within Lakes Urban District between 1935 and 1974, but as an urban parish it had no separate council.{{cite web |title=Lakes Urban District |url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10042525#tab02 |website=A Vision of Britain through Time |publisher=GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth |access-date=19 April 2025}}

Lakes Urban District was abolished in 1974. Patterdale was transferred to Eden District, and the remainder of the old Lakes Urban District, including Ambleside, became a successor parish called Lakes within the South Lakeland district of the new county of Cumbria.{{cite web|url=https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/westmorland%20south.html|title=Westmorland South Registration District|publisher=Ukbmd.org.uk|access-date=31 December 2021}}{{cite legislation UK|type=si|si=The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Definition) Order 1972|year=1972|number=2039|accessdate=3 March 2023}}{{cite legislation UK|type=si|si=The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Names) Order 1973|year=1973|number=551|accessdate=3 March 2023}} South Lakeland was in turn abolished in 2023 when the new Westmorland and Furness Council was created, also taking over the functions of the abolished Cumbria County Council in the area.{{cite legislation UK|type=si|si=The Cumbria (Structural Changes) Order 2022|year=2022|number=331|access-date=24 January 2024}}

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,{{cite web | url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/11471427570/ | title=Facebook Petition Group | website=Facebook}} the townspeople, and support pledged from Tim Farron, MP for the campus and its students.{{cite web | url=http://timfarron.co.uk/en/article/2008/105306/mp-recruits-new-students-in-fight-to-save-ambleside-campus | title=MP recruits new students in fight to save Ambleside campus | website=Tim Farron MP | date=22 September 2008}}{{cite web | url=http://timfarron.co.uk/en/article/2008/105366/mp-takes-ambleside-campaign-to-westminster | title=MP takes Ambleside campaign to Westminster | website=Tim Farron MP | date=10 November 2008}}{{cite web | url=http://timfarron.co.uk/en/article/2009/105458/mp-asks-new-vice-chancellor-of-university-cumbria-to-scrap-plans-to-downgrade-ambleside-campus | title=MP asks new Vice Chancellor of University Cumbria to scrap plans to downgrade Ambleside campus | website=Tim Farron MP | date=18 March 2009}}

In July 2011, the university announced a plan to reopen the campus and increase student numbers at the Ambleside campus beginning in 2014.{{cite news | url=http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/cumbria-university-plan-to-reopen-mothballed-ambleside-campus-1.882212 | title=Cumbria university plan to reopen mothballed Ambleside campus | newspaper=News and Star | date=28 September 2011 | last=Eve | first=Kelly |url-status = dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317183211/http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/cumbria-university-plan-to-reopen-mothballed-ambleside-campus-1.882212 | archive-date=17 March 2014 | df=dmy-all }} In September 2014, the newly refurbished campus was reopened.

Brathay Exploration Group, a youth charity, mainly meets at associated Clappersgate.

File:Boats at Waterhead Pier.jpg

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.windermere-lakecruises.co.uk/cruises-fares/green-cruise |title=Green Cruise |publisher=Windermere Lake Cruises |access-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612115858/https://www.windermere-lakecruises.co.uk/cruises-fares/green-cruise |archive-date=12 June 2018 |url-status = live}}{{cite web|title=Waterhead|url=https://www.visitcumbria.com/amb/waterhead-pier/|website=Visitcumbria.com|access-date=22 September 2017}}

Waterhead has hotels, cafés, boat hire establishments and the YHA youth hostel.{{cite web|title=YHA Ambleside|url=http://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/ambleside|publisher=Youth Hostels Association|access-date=22 September 2017}} 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 {{cite web |url=https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Windermere|title=Freeview Light on the Windermere (Cumbria, England) transmitter |date=May 2004 |publisher=UK Free TV |access-date= 28 October 2023}} and Hawkshead{{cite web |url=https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Hawkshead|title=Freeview Light on the Hawkshead (Cumbria, England) transmitter|date=May 2004 |publisher=UK Free TV |access-date= 28 October 2023}}).

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.{{Cite web |url=https://lakedistrictradio.org/ |title=Lake District Radio|access-date=28 October 2023}}

The town is served by the local newspapers, The Westmorland Gazette and North West Evening Mail.{{Cite web |url=https://www.visitcumbria.com/news/|title=Local Newspapers for Cumbria and the Lake District|access-date=28 October 2023}}

William Wordsworth worked in Ambleside, as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, from 1813, while living at Rydal Mount in the nearby village of Rydal.[http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMTK5_Wordsworths_Stamp_Office_Ambleside_Cumbria Wordsworth's Stamp Office, Ambleside, Cumbria]. Waymarking.com 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.

In 1846 Harriet Martineau moved into her new house, “The Knoll,” where she lived until her death in 1876.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cwherald.com/a/archive/the-wonderful-work-of-ambleside-s-harriet-martineau.179222.html |title=The wonderful work of Ambleside's Harriet Martineau |access-date=29 June 2018 |archive-date=29 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180629235809/http://www.cwherald.com/a/archive/the-wonderful-work-of-ambleside-s-harriet-martineau.179222.html |url-status=dead }} "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.[https://www.bmj.com/content/2/4472/443 Obituary: Dr Thomas Houghton Mitchell], British Medical Journal, 21 September 1946, 2:443, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.2.4472.443

Artist Kurt Schwitters was resident for {{frac|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 Ambleside Alibi (part of series Lake District Mysteries), by Rebecca Tope, Allison & Busbyhardback 2013, paperback 2017, {{ISBN|978-0749012748}}
• Album CSI:Ambleside, by Birkenhead-based band Half Man Half Biscuit.

The town maintains the Langdale & Ambleside MRT, one of the busiest volunteer mountain rescue teams nationally.

{{clear}}

File:Ambleside & Waterhead Panorama 2, Cumbria, England - Oct 2009.jpg}}]]

{{Clear}}

Bus services from Ambleside are operated predominantly by Stagecoach Cumbria. Key routes are:{{Cite web |title=Ambleside Bus Services |work=Bus Times |date=2023 |access-date=18 September 2023 |url= https://bustimes.org/localities/ambleside |quote=}}{{Cite web |title=CNL SUMMER 25 Lakes by Bus |url=https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/Cumbria/Lakes%20Connection/Summer%2025/Lakes%20by%20Bus%20Summer%202025%20WEB.pdf}}

• 505 to Coniston.
• 516 to Dungeon Ghyll.
• 555 to Keswick, Grasmere, Windermere railway station, Kendal and Lancaster
• 599 open top service, which is branded as Lakesider, to Grasmere and Bowness-on-Windermere via Windermere railway station.{{Efn|The 599 serves Kendal in the evenings.}}
• X8 to Keswick, Preston and Chorley.{{Cite web |title=Service X8 Timetable 30.3.24 |url=https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/Merseyside/2024/Service%20X8%20Timetable%20-%2030.3.24.pdf |website=stagecoachbus.com}}

The nearest National Rail station is at Windermere, which provides services to Oxenholme and Manchester Airport.{{Cite web |title=Timetables and engineering information for travel with Northern |work=Northern Railway |date=May 2023 |access-date=18 September 2023 |url= https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/travel/timetables |quote=}}

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.

{{Weather box

| width = auto

| metric first = yes

| single line = yes

| location = Ambleside (1991–2020)

| Jan high C = 7.0

| Feb high C = 7.7

| Mar high C = 9.3

| Apr high C = 12.8

| May high C = 16.2

| Jun high C = 18.4

| Jul high C = 20.2

| Aug high C = 20.0

| Sep high C = 17.1

| Oct high C = 13.3

| Nov high C = 9.9

| Dec high C = 7.4

| year high C = 13.3

| Jan low C = 1.2

| Feb low C = 1.7

| Mar low C = 2.6

| Apr low C = 4.5

| May low C = 7.0

| Jun low C = 10.0

| Jul low C = 11.8

| Aug low C = 11.7

| Sep low C = 9.6

| Oct low C = 6.8

| Nov low C = 3.8

| Dec low C = 1.9

| year low C = 6.1

| rain colour = green

| Jan rain mm = 235.3

| Feb rain mm = 205.3

| Mar rain mm = 157.9

| Apr rain mm = 101.4

| May rain mm = 100.8

| Jun rain mm = 118.3

| Jul rain mm = 128.9

| Aug rain mm = 157.8

| Sep rain mm = 162.8

| Oct rain mm = 224.3

| Nov rain mm = 236.2

| Dec rain mm = 274.0

| year rain mm = 2102.9

| Jan sun = 47.0

| Feb sun = 65.2

| Mar sun = 97.3

| Apr sun = 140.9

| May sun = 161.8

| Jun sun = 158.5

| Jul sun = 143.4

| Aug sun = 136.9

| Sep sun = 99.5

| Oct sun = 72.8

| Nov sun = 53.3

| Dec sun = 48.6

| year sun = 1225.2

| source 1 = Met Office{{cite web

|url = https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-climate-averages/gctvssktt

|title = Ambleside (Cumbria) UK climate averages - Met Office

|publisher = Met Office

|access-date = July 7, 2024}}

}}

{{portal|Cumbria}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Ambleside, Cumbria}}

{{Wikivoyage|Ambleside}}

• [http://www.amblesideonline.co.uk Ambleside Community & Tourist Information]
• [https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ambleside Ambleside information at the National Trust]
• [http://www.amblesidecumbria.co.uk/gallery/c1.html Ambleside Photographs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110531121105/http://www.amblesidecumbria.co.uk/gallery/c1.html |date=31 May 2011 }} On the Ambleside, Cumbria website.
• [http://www.cumbriacountyhistory.org.uk/township/ambleside Cumbria County History Trust: Ambleside] (nb: provisional research only – see Talk page)
• [http://www.windermere-way.co.uk/ The Windermere Way – a walking route that goes right around the lake.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210223063815/http://www.windermere-way.co.uk/ |date=23 February 2021 }}

{{Notelist}}{{Cumbria}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Towns in Cumbria

Category:Former civil parishes in Cumbria

Category:Westmorland and Furness