Editing Ambleside (section)

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

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

[[File:Market Hall, Ambleside (6788).jpg|thumb|left|The Market Hall]]
In 1650 the town was granted a charter to hold a market.<ref>{{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}}</ref> In the reign of [[James II of England|James II]], another charter was granted for the town to collect tolls.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.lakedistricts.co.uk/ambleside |title=Ambleside &#124; 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 }}</ref> 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 With the coming of the turnpikes, the packhorse trains were superseded by horse-drawn stagecoaches, which regularly travelled between Keswick and Kendal via Ambleside.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

The [[The Samling Hotel, Windermere|Samling Hotel]] was built in the 1780s, then called the "Dove Nest".<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref>[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”.</ref>

The [[Armitt Library|Armitt Library and Museum]] opened in 1912 in memory of [[Sophia Armitt|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.<ref name=odnbarmitt/>