THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GUIDEBOOKS AND THE LEISURE PRACTICE OF FELLWALKING IN THE ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT FROM 1855 TO 1966

Woodham, Liz and Bainbridge, Simon and Donaldson, Christopher (2026) THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GUIDEBOOKS AND THE LEISURE PRACTICE OF FELLWALKING IN THE ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT FROM 1855 TO 1966. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

My thesis examines the relationship between guidebooks and fellwalking in the English Lake District from 1855 to 1966. It challenges the notion that fellwalking began with Alfred Wainwright’s seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells (1955-1966), by highlighting the long history of fellwalking guidebooks and the development of this leisure practice in the century prior to Wainwright. It addresses the central question of how fellwalking changed from a pursuit where, in 1855, hiring a guide was largely regarded as essential, to one in which the reader-walker typically orients themselves independently. Guidebooks which contained detailed walking route directions, accompanied by illustrations, enabled new communities of visitors to explore the uplands on foot, without engaging a guide, effectively a form of servant. I adopt an interdisciplinary approach, combining methods from cultural and literary history, to study the relationship between fellwalking and the form, content and reception of selected works, chosen for close focus because they are representative of a literary genre and also move practice forward. My primary sources are over 100 English Lake District guidebooks published between 1778 and 1966, supplemented by a large body of tourist and general literature on the region. My thesis sits at the intersection of literary, print, environmental and cultural history and histories of cartography, sport, tourism, transport and travel. Studies in these fields have tended to be insufficiently specific regarding the differences between guidebooks and generic travel literature such as a companion, memoir or handbook. As a result, they have typically neglected how the promotion of autonomous fellwalking in guidebooks has contributed to the development of a practice which forms part of the cultural identity of the English Lake District.