Ambleside: Introduction
In 1855 Harriet Martineau made the following comment in her guide: “Some call Ambleside the head quarters of the lake district, and others Keswick.” With the coming of the railway to Windermere in 1847, Ambleside was now rivalling Keswick as the premier location for the tourist.
However, this was a relatively new phenomenon, and Ambleside had changed much in the preceding decades. In the census of 1811 there are 624 residents listed, with the principal trade being the manufacture of linseys — coarse wool fabrics — by a large force of workmen, and a Wednesday market “principally for animal food.” It had been a pretty town with Wordsworth, in 1810, lamenting the loss of the “picturesque beauty, arising from a combination of rustic architecture and natural scenery.”
In the census of 1851, agricultural labourers still contributed the largest part of the workforce, closely followed by those in domestic service. Industry was present, too, in 1840s Ambleside with mills — bobbin, corn and fulling — and a brewery.
Major changes had nevertheless taken place over the past hundred years. The population had increased, with the 1851 census noting the population as 1,592. Not only were jobs related to tourism more readily available, but the whole look of the place was changing. Earlier the landscape artist William Green complained that instead of the ancient town he had seen upon his arrival in Ambleside in 1800 the town now resembled that of a modern village. No doubt many saw this as an improvement.
John Harden, Ambleside 10 Sept 1818,
ink and wash, The Wordsworth Trust.