Alfred Wainwright is widely known for his Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells book series. This 13-year project began in 1952 and comprised seven detailed books on 214 fells in the Lake District. They are all handwritten and contain no printer’s type. Decades later, they are still considered the definitive guides to the Lakeland fells. Wainwright would continue producing over 50 more books and cement himself as a Lakeland legend.
Wainwright, the son of a stonemason, was born in Blackburn on the 17th of January 1907 into a relatively poor working-class family. His mother washed clothes for the neighbours to make ends meet. He was the youngest of four, and like most children during this period, he was destined for the cotton mill. This was not for Wainwright, so he studied hard at school and came first in nearly every subject. At 13, he was a successful applicant for an office boy at Blackburn’s Borough Engineer’s Department. He eventually transferred to the Borough Treasurer’s office and qualified as an accountant after years of studying during the evenings.
As a child, he loved to write and draw. He became obsessed with maps and explored much of Blackburn. In 1930, at 23, Wainwright saved up five pounds and took a week’s holiday in the Lake District with his cousin Eric Beardsall. They arrived in Windermere and, doing as everybody told him, climbed to Orrest Head. At the top, he surveyed the spectacular panorama before him and could not believe such beauty existed. This day changed his life forever, and he knew this was the place he wanted to be.
In 1931, he married Ruth Holden (1909 – 1985), a mill worker, and they had a son, Peter. Wainwright’s deep desire to live in the Lake District never left him, and, in 1941, he applied for a position as an accountancy assistant at Kendal Borough Treasurer’s office. He got the job and eventually became Borough Treasurer in 1948, remaining in this position until he retired in 1967. The marriage to Ruth collapsed shortly before he retired, and they soon divorced. Three years later, he married Betty McNally (1922–2008), with whom he found love for the first time. She became his companion until his death at 84 on the 20th of January 1991. She fulfilled his final wish by scattering his ashes by Innominate Tarn on Haystacks.
