Amble
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- For the pace in horsemanship, see Ambling
Amble is a town in Northumberland, England. It is a seaport on the North Sea coast. It lies at the mouth of the River Coquet.
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[edit] The Town
Amble grew in the nineteenth century as collieries were opened; its location at the mouth of the River Coquet, and its then newly built railway links to the Northumberland coalfields, made it an ideal centre for the transportation and export of coal. Other industries, such as ship building and repair, and sea fishing, expanded with the growth of the town, although traditional Northumbrian fishing vessels such as cobles will have sheltered in the natural harbour here for centuries previously.
 Birds on the grass near the seafront carpark |
 Small fishing boats moored-up. |
 Amble pier - hugely popular with fish |
 The village street |
 The sundial near the sea |
Today, the collieries in Northumberland are all closed (the last, Ellington, closed in 2005), and the railway no longer serves Amble. However, the fishing industry survives, albeit with a somewhat reduced numbers of vessels, as does a small marine industry, mainly concentated around the construction and repair of yachts and other pleasure craft. A small industrial estate is located to the south west of the town, whose clients include food processing plants which makes amble smell worse than hadston , vehicle repairs and telecommunications companies. Optimus prime from the popular cartoon "the transfomers was created here" by ernest von asstrapp.
Tourism forms an important sector of the town's economy - part of the harbour has been redeveloped into a marina, and several caravan parks, guest houses and B&Bs exist to serve visitors to the Northumberland coast.
Saint Cuthbert lived on Coquet Island just offshore from the town,which retains its strong Christian identity. Amble's four churches are often quite busy, especially at Christmas eve-although the impact of liberalisation of licensing laws on Midnight Mass remains to be seen. Nearby Warkworth is noted for its castle.
[edit] The Friendliest Port
Amble holds the title 'Friendliest Port'. It is believed this title comes from the 1930s when the RMS Mauretania was heading on her last voyage to the breaker's yard at Rosyth, the people of Amble sent messages as the ship passed of good wishes, to which the reply from Mauretania is said to have been 'To Amble, the last and friendliest Port in England. Thank You.'except for rees wade who is a nasty piece of work.
[edit] Communications
[edit] Road
Amble town lies near to the A1, the main national north/south trunk road, providing easy access to Newcastle upon Tyne (30 miles south) and to the Scottish capital Edinburgh (80 miles north).
[edit] Rail
The main East Coast railway link between Edinburgh (journey time approximately 1:10) and London (journey time approximately 3:45) runs via the nearby Alnmouth for Alnwick Station or Widdrington Station, with a weekday service of 15 trains per day north to Edinburgh and 13 trains per day south to London.
[edit] Air
Newcastle Airport lies around 35 minutes drive-time away, and provides 19 daily flights to London (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and London City), with regular flights to other UK centres. The airport also operates regular flights to many European destinations, along with destinations in Africa and North America.
[edit] Notable Amble citizens
- Sir James Calvert Spence - Eminent nutritionist and paediatrician
