Rampside

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Rampside is a village located a few miles south-east of the town of Barrow-in-Furness, in the north-western corner of Morecambe Bay in the United Kingdom. It is in Furness, part of the administrative county of Cumbria.

[edit] History

There is evidence that the village was inhabited as early as 1292, in the records of the monks of Furness Abbey, though Viking and Roman artefacts have been found in the village's church. As well as agriculture, the village acted as a small port, with shipping trade coming to Furness Abbey via Roa Island, which itself was defended by the fortified Piel Island, both around one mile south of Rampside.

In the late eighteenth century, the village had a reputation as a bathing resort; at the time, it was larger than Barrow-in-Furness, which was still a small hamlet. The poet, William Wordsworth, is known to have frequented the village at this time. His memory of his time at Rampside and his view towards Piel Castle led him to write the following:

                 'I was thy neighbour once, thou rugged Pile! 
                  Four summer weeks I dwelt in sight of thee:
                  I saw thee every day, and all the while,
                  Thy form was sleeping on a glassy sea'

In 1840, development began on a causeway to Roa Island, resulting in a rail ferry from Fleetwood to the island, the trains then passing through Rampside to get to Barrow and the southern Lake District. This service became obsolete with the railway barges linking Ulverston and Lancaster, and the causeway soon became a road. Since then, Roa Island and Rampside have retained their close links to the sea, with sailing and windsurfing popular in the surrounding waters.

[edit] Present day

Rampside is also near to the National Grid Gas terminal at Roosecote, where gas from the Morecambe Bay and Irish Sea gasfields comes onshore and is used to create electricity which is inserted into the National Grid. This, and commuting into Barrow, are the main sources of modern-day employment in Rampside.