Alfred Wainwright MBE (1907 - 1991)

Early life

Alfred Wainwright was born in Blackburn on 17th January 1907 into a relatively poor family. He did very well at school but left at the age of 13 to work as an office boy at Blackburn Town Hall. He spent several further years studying at night school, gaining qualifications in accountancy which enabled him to further his career at Blackburn Borough Council. Even when a child Wainwright walked a great deal, up to 20 miles at a time; he also showed a great interest in drawing and cartography, producing his own maps of England and his local area.

In 1930, Wainwright saved up enough money for a week's walking holiday in the Lake District which marked the start of his love affair with the Lake District. In 1941 he was able to move closer to the fells when he took a job at the Borough Treasurer's office in Kendal, Westmorland. He lived and worked in the town for the rest of his life, serving as Borough Treasurer from 1948 until he retired in 1967.

Pictorial Guides

Wainwright started work on the first page of his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells on 9 November 1952. He planned the precise scope and content of the seven volumes from the start, and worked conscientiously and meticulously in pen and ink on the series. It took him 13 years to climb the 214 fells, travelling on foot or by public transport from his Kendal home. He never learned to drive a car. On completing the first book, he decided to publish it himself.

According to Wainwright, he initially planned the series for his own interest rather than with any intention of publication. The Eastern Fells, the first in his Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells, came out in 1955 and the final one, The Western Fells, was published in 1966. Since they were written they have sold more than two million copies.

Later works

Wainwright followed the Pictorial Guides in 1968 with the Pennine Way Companion, applying the same detailed approach to Britain's first long-distance footpath. In 1972 Wainwright devised the Coast to Coast Walk, partly as a conscious alternative to the Pennine Way. The Coast to Coast, he declares in his guidebook to the route, which follows the same format as the Pennine Way Companion, "puts the Pennine Way to shame" for scenic beauty, variety and interest. The 190-mile route traverses the north of England from St. Bees to Robin Hood's Bay, passing through the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors national parks.

The Outlying Fells of Lakeland (an idea he had previously rejected), published in 1974, was his last major guidebook. Thereafter he concentrated on sketchbooks of larger-size line drawings until his eyesight began to fail in the mid-1980s.

Television

In the mid-1980s Wainwright began to become a TV personality; several TV series based on his work were largely devised and presented by the farmer and broadcaster Eric Robson. A BBC documentary has been shot about Wainwright's life and was aired on Sunday 25 February 2007 on BBC Four, prior to a new 4-part series of walks beginning on Monday 26 February 2007. This first Wainwright Walks BBC series covered Blencathra by Sharp Edge, Castle Crag, Haystacks and Scafell Pike from Seathwaite. The second series, broadcast later in 2007, includes Catbells, Crinkle Crags, Helm Crag, Helvellyn from Patterdale, High Street from Mardale and Pillar.

Influence

Wainwright's Pictorial Guides have been in continuous publication sof more up-to-date guides are now on the market, his books remain among the most popular available for their depth, detail and unique style. Moreover, his division of the Lake District into seven areas, and his choice of fells to include, have been followed in whole or in part by subsequent writers. The Coast to Coast Walk too is one of the most popular long-distance footpaths in the United Kingdom despite its lack of official status, and has spawned various guidebooks by other authors. The 214 fells described in the Pictorial Guides are now generally known as The Wainwrights, and visiting them all is a common form of peak bagging. The Wainwright Society was inaugurated in 2002, with the aim of keeping alive the things he promoted through his books.

Wainwright died on 20th January 1991at the Westmorland County Hospital, Kendal, of heart failure and was cremated four days later. His ashes were scattered on Innominate Tarn on Haystacks: Wainwright's favourite fell of all.

Innominate Tarn: Wainwright's
last resting place