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Ambleside
is at the top of Lake Windermere, under the surrounding fells,
an ideal centre from which to explore the Lake District.
Ambleside
once produced charcoal for the iron ore smelting in West Cumbria,
bobbins for the textile industry, machine toolsas well as
quarrying and mining for slate and stone.
Quarrying
of the local sllate and stone still takes place.
Most
of the buildings in Ambleside date from the Victorian era
when the town grew with the arrival of the railway at Windermere.
Of interest
is Bridge House, a tiny stone house on an arch over the river
Stock Ghyll. Legend tells that a Scotsman built the two-roomed
structure to avoid paying land tax. This building is now the
information centre for the National Trust
The Old
Stamp House in the town was the poet William Wordsworth’s
place of work in his capacity as Official Distributor of Stamps
for Westmoreland.
The parish
church of St. Mary the Virgin was built in 1854, with a sandstone
steeple which, at 180 feet high,towers above the roof tops
of the houses. The church contains memorial windows to Wordsworth
and his family. Every year is the Rush Bearing ceremony, which
dates back to the Middle Ages, from the old custom of annually
renewing the rushes, which were strewn on the church floor.
Held on the 1st Saturday in July.
Ambleside
is famous for its annual sports and sheep dog trials, which
are held on the 1st Monday in August.
The Armitt
Ambleside Museum shows the local history, photographs by magic
of photographer Herbert Bell and Beatrix Potter’s natural
history watercolours.
A good
centre for walking, with outdoor clothing shops for those
last minute items, and for a trip on Lake Windermere from
the ferry terminal at Waterhead Pier.
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Ambleside
Beatrix
Potter Gallery Hawkshead,
5 miles south-west of Ambleside on B5285 Next to the Red Lion
Inn is the low cream painted building where Beatrix Potter went
to consult the local solicitor W.H. Heelis & Son. William Heelis,
the junior partner, whi became her husband. Displays
