Ambleside. Ambleside is a town in Cumbria, in North West England. Historically in Westmorland, it is situated at the head of Windermere, England's largest natural lake. The town is within the Lake District National Park. Ambleside is administered by South Lakeland District Council and forms part of the Lakes civil parish but from 1894 to 1935 it was a separate urban district council. Ferries run to Bowness-on-Windermere and Lakeside offering fine views of the lake and surrounding mountains. Ambleside is a base for hiking, mountaineering and mountain biking. It has a number of hotels, guest houses, pubs and restaurants as well as shops. In particular, there are a number of shops selling equipment for walkers and climbers in the town. Ambleside is a popular starting point for the Fairfield horseshoe, a hillwalking ridge hike. Ambleside is also home to the headquarters of Brathay Exploration Group, a youth charity based just beyond Clappersgate on the road to Hawkshead. 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. To the south of Ambleside is the Roman fort of Galava, dating from AD 79. In 1650 the town was granted a charter to hold a market. In the reign of James II, another charter was granted for the town to collect tolls. 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 With the coming of the turnpikes, the packhorse trains were superseded by horse-drawn stagecoaches, which regularly travelled between Keswick and Kendal via Ambleside. William Wordsworth worked in Ambleside, as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, from 1813, while living at Rydal Mount in the nearby village of Rydal. This government position induced Shelley to write a sonnet of mild reprimand, To Wordsworth, but it gave Wordsworth the financial security to pursue his poetry. In 1842, he became the Poet Laureate and resigned his office as Stamp Distributor. In 1846 Harriet Martineau moved into her new house, The Knoll, where she lived until her death in 1876. Something of a Victorian superstar, Martineau was perhaps Ambleside's most famous resident. She was a professional woman, international correspondent; she ran a micro-farm on her property; she formed a Property Association and helped working families in the neighborhood build their own homes. Her winter lecture series packed the Methodist Church next-door to her property. One of the earliest houses built in 1780 is the Samling Hotel which was then called Dove's Nest. Ambleside & District Golf Club was founded in 1903. The Armitt Library and Museum, which provides a source of local history with a collection which represents many local artists and writers, was opened in 1912 in memory of Sophia and Mary Louisa Armitt. The German artist Kurt Schwitters lived in Ambleside for two years until his death in 1947. He had been interned in the Isle of Man during World War II after moving to England to escape the Nazis. The railway engineer Edward Bury and his wife Priscilla Susan Bury lived at Ambleside. Bridge House was built over Stock Ghyll more than 300 years ago, probably as a summer house and apple store for Ambleside Hall.