watched the working partnership the farmhands had with the farm horses, which were still doing most of the jobs on the farm in the early 1960’s. By the time I was 8 we were living in Cumbria, and my chosen breed was a Fell Pony for their working versatility and clever nature from growing up on the wild falls. They learned common sense from the herd, that helped them to be a working friend you could trust when trained to ride and drive and work the land which was my interest in the breed.

From 1979, I have had a Fell pony or two in my life, making my living for over 10 years with them. Working with my partner on an organic smallholding with pony power, Carriage driving instructor, Curator at The Black Country Museum to establish a working carters yard, showing the public all the different jobs the ponies did in the year 1900 in Dudley as a living Museum in the West Midlands. From there, I went on to farm for 20 years in France on the Charente Limousine near the mountains of the Massif Central region with sheep and Breeding Fell Ponies under the Globetrotter prefix. Fell ponies get their name from the Cumbrian fells that they live on and need to stay there for their wilder side, that makes them the breed they are. In 2018, we came home to Cumbria to help the declining hill breeders and hill herds who look after the core of the breed and to work with them to give a strong voice to their cause to keep the Fell Pony on the Fells.

You may have walked the narrow pavements of Ambleside, exploring the various cafes, gift outlets and outdoor shops, but did you know that behind the main streets, you can find a fascinating history of the older town? Covering the story of Ambleside’s mills and industry, the markets and the people, we aim to give you an insight into the honeypot destination at the centre of the Lake District.
Join us on one of our newly developed Heritage Walking Tours of Ambleside, created by our volunteers and with inspiration and thanks from the Heritage Trail leaflet produced by the Ambleside Civic Trust.
The tour will take approx. 1 hour and start from The Armitt. Please come in appropriate clothing for the weather and sturdy footwear. Most of the walk will be on footpaths but there are some sections that are slightly steeper. Your ticket includes entry into The Armitt.

You may have walked the narrow pavements of Ambleside, exploring the various cafes, gift outlets and outdoor shops, but did you know that behind the main streets, you can find a fascinating history of the older town? Covering the story of Ambleside’s mills and industry, the markets and the people, we aim to give you an insight into the honeypot destination at the centre of the Lake District.
Join us on one of our newly developed Heritage Walking Tours of Ambleside, created by our volunteers and with inspiration and thanks from the Heritage Trail leaflet produced by the Ambleside Civic Trust.
The tour will take approx. 1 hour and start from The Armitt. Please come in appropriate clothing for the weather and sturdy footwear. Most of the walk will be on footpaths but there are some sections that are slightly steeper. Your ticket includes entry into The Armitt.

The Armitt museum’s fungi walks are back again for another year! Follow in the footsteps of Beatrix Potter and join us on our hunt for fungi. Colin and Helen, will lead a guided walk through Ambleside on a fungi hunt inspired by Beatrix Potter’s incredible scientific illustrations and her passion for all things mycological. The walk will start and finish at The Armitt museum with the chance to see some of Beatrix Potter’s original fungi illustrations.

The route will vary on the day depending on which fungi decide to make an appearance so please dress prepared for bumpy and uneven paths. Please also dress appropriately for the weather.

Due to the terrain, we do not recommend this walk for people with wheelchairs or people who may have trouble walking.

Dates of the walks are:

• Saturday 10 August
• Saturday 21 September
• Sunday 6 October
• More dates to follow…

Adults £12 – Children £6

Walker’s bio

Colin Doull is a keen amateur mycologist and has been interested in fungi for over 15 years. He spends much of his spare time studying or looking for fungi. Colin is a member of the British Mycological Society, actively participates in the Cumbria Fungi Group, the North West Fungus Group and created the Caithness Fungi Group.

Helen Speed is a fungi enthusiast who has been fascinated by fungi, in all their forms, for over 30 years. She regularly leads forays and delivers talks for Natural History groups in the South Lakes. She is a member of North West Fungus Group , Clyde and Argyll Fungus Group, the British Mycological Society and the Fungus Conservation Trust.

Back once again for 2024 is a guided walk of Ambleside by Dr Penny Bradshaw.

Ambleside’s literary associations date back to the rise of picturesque tourism in the 18th century. In the years that followed William Wordsworth’s arrival in nearby Grasmere in 1799, a host of writers were drawn to the Lake District. Celebrated poets and novelists, from John Keats to Charlotte Brontë, visited Ambleside and other writers, such as Thomas De Quincey and Matthew Arnold, had homes here. By the 1850s Ambleside was at the centre of a Victorian vogue for ‘literary tourism’, with visitors exploring the region through the writing it inspired. During the tour, Penny will offer insights into important aspects of the town’s history and will share some of the responses it inspired in its literary visitors.

This half day walk with literary readings will be led by Dr Penny Bradshaw, author of A Literary Walking Tour of Ambleside (2021).

The walk will begin and end at The Armitt. Copies of Penny’s literary tour will be on sale in the shop and Penny will be happy to do a book signing at the end of the event.

NB: the tour will mainly involve walking along good footpaths but attendees are advised to wear suitable footwear and outer clothing. Please have lunch beforehand as the walk will be continuous and only stop briefly for readings.

About the walk leader and author

Dr Penny Bradshaw is an Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Cumbria and programme Leader for the University’s MA Literature, Romanticism, and the English Lake District. Penny specialises in regional Romanticism and literary responses to place. She is also the author of three walking tours: Literary Lancaster (2016), A Literary Walking Tour of Ambleside (2021) and A Literary Walking Tour of Carlisle (2023). Penny is currently writing a book on Beatrix Potter for Bloomsbury Academic.

WALK IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF KURT SCHWITTERS – an afternoon of reflective walking on the life and work of Kurt Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) who spent the last few years of his life in Ambleside. He was a German artist, who became famous for his poem Anna Blume, worked in several genres and media, including Dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography, and what came to be known as installation art. He is most famous for his collages, called “Merz Pictures”.

Participants are encouraged to bring packed lunch and appropriate clothes/shoes for walking – which will take place regardless of the weather.

Starting at 12.30pm from the Armitt Museum (which has on display original works by Schwitters), this guided walk will go to Schwitters’ Ambleside homes, a couple of his favourite pubs and his gravestone. There will be stories of his time in Ambleside and a chance to discuss his work. On the walk, the guide will point out the general location of his studio and other landmarks and end back at the Armitt Museum to see some examples of his work and the bust of Schwitters. This bust was created by your guide, award winning artist Anthony Padgett.

About the artist

Padgett’s art practice looks at the history of art and literature. It includes spending a year being inspired to create artworks and texts around the lives of famous artists and poets. He then creates sculptures of those figures and sites these internationally. His subjects include Schwitters, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Wilfred Owen and Humbert Wolfe.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) and Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) were both Londoners in the Lakes. To varying degrees, their artistic outputs, conservation attitudes, and cultural identity became grafted to their subsequent residence in this region. Both were keen gardeners at their Lakeland homes — Brantwood, Hill-Top, and Castle Cottage — and central to their cultivation of these spaces, was an interest in the presence of trees, including regional species like the Keswick Codlin. Through using diaries, correspondence, and sketches by the authors, alongside a consideration of literary works — from Ruskin’s ‘Modern Painters’ (1843-60) and ‘Prosperina’ (1879) to Potter’s ‘The Oakmen’ (1918) and ‘The Fairy Caravan’ (1929) — this talk will explore how Ruskin and Potter cultivated trees, woodland, and orchard spaces on their respective properties, and will draw out similarities in their attitudes towards arboreal caretaking, more broadly. In turn, this talk will investigate how, at the turn of the nineteenth century, Ruskin and Potter’s corresponding arboricultural ideas contributed to their similar and significant environmental vision(s) rooted in, and responsive to, this particular landscape.

Dr Anna Burton is a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Derby. Anna’s research is concerned with representations of trees and woodland in nineteenth-century English literature and culture; her book, ‘Trees in Nineteenth-Century Fiction: The Silvicultural Novel’, was published with Routledge in 2021, and her current project focuses on the literary and cultural history of tree planting in the English Lake District. Alongside Dr Amanda Blake Davis, she also co-leads the ‘Romantic Trees: The Literary Arboretum, 1740-1840’ project and the interdisciplinary ‘Tree Talks’ seminar series.

Image: W.G. Collingwood, Professor Ruskin’s Orchard (1904), The Brantwood Trust

You may have walked the narrow pavements of Ambleside, exploring the various cafes, gift outlets and outdoor shops, but did you know that behind the main streets, you can find a fascinating history of the older town? Covering the story of Ambleside’s mills and industry, the markets and the people, we aim to give you an insight into the honeypot destination at the centre of the Lake District.
Join us on one of our newly developed Heritage Walking Tours of Ambleside, created by our volunteers and with inspiration and thanks from the Heritage Trail leaflet produced by the Ambleside Civic Trust.
The tour will take approx. 1 hour and start from The Armitt. Please come in appropriate clothing for the weather and sturdy footwear. Most of the walk will be on footpaths but there are some sections that are slightly steeper. Your ticket includes entry into The Armitt.