Bowness-on-Windermere

infobox UK place
country = England
official_name= Bowness-on-Windermere
latitude= 54.3644
longitude= -2.9181
official_name= Bowness-on-Windermere
population = 3,814
shire_district= South Lakeland
shire_county = Cumbria
region= North West England
constituency_westminster= Westmorland and Lonsdale
post_town= WINDERMERE
postcode_district = LA23
postcode_area= LA
dial_code= 015394
os_grid_reference= SD403969
static_

static_image_caption=Bowness-on-Windermere Town Centre

Bowness-on-Windermere is built on hilly terrain on the shores of Windermere in South Lakeland, Cumbria, England; while it has now grown together with the town of Windermere (which, confusingly, does not actually touch the lake), the two still have distinguishable town centres.

Windermere railway station offers train and bus connections to the surrounding areas, Manchester, Manchester Airport, and the West Coast Main Line, and is about a fifteen-minute walk from the lakefront. Both Stagecoach and the local council provide frequent connecting buses from Bowness Pier; Stagecoach's open-top double-decker buses travel through the centre of town and continue to Ambleside and Grasmere, while the council's wheelchair-accessible minibuses run around the edge of town. The Windermere Ferry, a car carrying cable ferry, connects Bowness with Far Sawrey on the opposite side of the lake.

The town's ancient parish church of St Martin [http://www.stmartin.org.uk/] was built in 1483, but of an older foundation. The former rectory is said to have been built in 1415.

Readers of Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" and the following books will recognise Bowness as the lakeside town of 'Rio'. The collection at the Windermere Steamboat Museum (see restoration project homepage at [http://www.steamboat.co.uk/ www.steamboat.co.uk] ) on Rayrigg Road includes TSSY "Esperance", 1869, the iron steamboat on which Ransome modelled Captain Flint's houseboat.

Bowness-on-Windermere became a civil parish in 1894 at the same time an urban district council was formed for the town. The UDC merged with Windermere UDC in 1905 and the two civil parishes merged in 1974 under the name of Windermere. The civil parish is governed by a town council.

ee also

*Windermere (lake)
*Windermere (town)
*Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House
* Windermere Steamboat Museum

External links

* [http://www.wmv.co.uk Windermere Marina Village - The North's Premier Inland Marina]
* [http://www.blackwell.org.uk Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House Website]
* [http://www.steamboat.co.uk/ Windermere Steamboat Project]
* [http://www.stmartin.org.uk/ St Martin's Church, Bowness-on-Windermere]
* [http://www.windermereonline.co.uk Windermere Online] Windermere Online Community Website.
* [http://www.english-lakes.com/bowness.html Bowness-on-Windermere guide]
* [http://www.windermere-way.co.uk/ The Windermere Way - a walking route that circumambulates the lake.]