In May 1965, AW decided to use four researchers to help with a book he was planning on the Pennine Way. He wanted them to go ahead and walk a particular stretch of the route which he would then cover.
One of the researchers was Len Chadwick of Dobcross near Oldham with whom he had been in correspondence a few year earlier (see Letters 61–4) When it was suggested to him, Len was immediately very keen, and was willing to do it for free, but wanted to involve other members of his walking club KS (Kindred Spirits). AW was against this, saying it should be done alone, sending exact instructions on what to do and what to look out for.
12 May 1965
Dear Mr Chadwick,
Thank you for your letter and poems, which latter I now return.
All the Pennine Way stuff is here, so if you are rarin’ to go you can make a start. Instructions are enclosed.
I note you suggest this is a job the K.S. can do as a party, but in my opinion it should be done without distractions by one man travelling slowly and alone.
I will expect to hear from you around Christmas.
Yours sincerely
AWainwright
A PICTORIAL GUIDE TO THE PENNINE WAY
Collaborators |
Sections |
Mr Len Chadwick, of Oldham |
Edale to Todmorden–Halifax road |
Mr Lawrence W. Smith, of Bradford |
Todmorden-Halifax road to Malham Tarn |
Mr Harry Appleyard, of Wigton |
Tan Hill Inn to Cross Fell summit Mr Cyril Moore, of Morecambe Cross Fell summit to Kirk Yetholm |
(A. Wainwright will do the middle section, Malham Tarn to Tan Hill Inn)
INSTRUCTIONS
A complete set of two and a half inch maps for your section is enclosed. On them, Mr Moore has indicated the course of the Pennine Way by a faint green line, according to the best information available to him. Also enclosed are the related 1 inch maps in the latest editions, which indicate the Pennine Way.
The line of the Way is to be checked carefully. Where there is no evidence on the ground (by signpost or distinct path), the approved route should be verified, if necessary, from other sources – by the various official publications on the subject, by local ramblers’ associations or the local authority for the area, or by the farmers over whose ground the route passes. Doubts will arise in only a few places, as a complete right of way has now been established. Where a certain amount of discretion is left to the walker, such as in crossing a pathless moor, the best line should be worked out. Where there are ‘official’ variations, as with the start at Edale, all variations should be given the full treatment, as below.
The plan is to indicate on the two and a half inch maps the nature of the course to be followed. Where the way lies along a motor-road, an unbroken black line should be used _______; where the path is clear underfoot, a broken line ------; where the path is intermittent, a line of dots .......... These must be indicated neatly on the maps provided, in black waterproof Indian ink.
It is not intended in the book to give detail more than a hundred yards on each side of a well-defined path, but where there is discretion a wider area will need to be detailed. Objects of interest in the vicinity of the Way, say within a mile, such as Roman Camps, tumuli, good viewpoints, waterfalls, etc, will be mentioned and these items numbered to agree with numbers written on the two and a half inch maps at the appropriate places. Apart from the classifications of the footpaths as mentioned in the previous paragraphs, and these reference numbers, no other markings should be made on the maps.
Please return the completed two and a half inch maps, the list of notes of interesting places, the 1 inch maps, and any correspondence collected on doubtful matter, by Christmas 1965. A.W. will then go over all the ground, a bit at a time, during 1966 and 1967. Publication date: Easter 1968.
Although all collaborators have offered their services out of the goodness of their hearts, it is not intended that they shall suffer any expense, and a cheque is enclosed to cover travelling and subsistence expenses. Payments need not be accounted for; if there is any balance it may be spent in riotous living with A.W.’s compliments.
A year later, Len started sending his research notes to AW and there began a long correspondence between them, over details of the walks.
They never met and AW knew nothing about Len – whether he married, what his job was – though eventually AW did enquire about his occupation.
c/o Westmorland Gazette, Kendal
29th May 1966
Dear Mr Chadwick
I am writing to acknowledge safe receipt of your separate volumes on the southern part of the Pennine way, and do so with sincere thanks for a job very well done. In fact, these books are fabulous, full of interesting detail, and it is a pity, in a way, that they contain far more information than I can find space to use. If I don’t make a first-class job of it, after all the trouble you have gone to and all the help you have given me, it will be due to my own short-comings. In due course I will return all your notes.
I wish the weather would improve!
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
Dear Mr Chadwick,
Your remaining PW volumes have arrived safely. Many thanks.
As you can imagine, I had a splendid Whitsuntide in perfect conditions. I was staying with relatives at Penistone, and managed to get done the section from Crowden to the A640 beyond Standedge including the Wessenden Loop. In bad weather there must be many difficulties of route-finding, but in the clear visibility and sunshine of Whitsun I had no trouble at all and thoroughly enjoyed everything – most of all your notes, which are admirable to follow and which I found absolutely accurate in all details. You certainly did a thorough job and have saved me a great deal of time.
I have now started on the book, and am doing this section first – it will fit into place later.
There is a little additional information needed on a few points I wish to mention, and if you can supply it I shall be grateful. The questions are overleaf.
Thanks again, a lot.
AWainwright
Black Hill’s summit also seems to be named Soldier’s Lump. Do you know why? (you mention army surveyors) is the story fit for telling?
Am I right in assuming that Hollin Brown Knott was the place of burial of the bodies in the recent trial?
I found the Ammon Wrigley memorial stone on Standedge (but would have missed it completely but for your clear description). Is this rock locally known as the Dinner Stone, as you suggest? The O.S. maps indicate the Dinner Stone as being 200 yards from the column at a place where there is a conspicuous and isolated rock with a cairn on it and the letters L.T. Do you know the year of Ammon’s birth?
Dear Mr Chadwick,
I am now returning volumes 3 and 4 of your Pennine Way notes, and three of the 6 inch maps you loaned me. The sections, CROWDEN-STANDEDGE, is now completed in book form, and your notes and the maps have been of immense help. The pity is that I have had to condense everything so much and leave out much I would have liked to include. This particular section, for instance, will occupy only 12 pages. Many thanks again for your assistance.
I wrote to Miss Winterbottom and have had her reply. She has given me the date of Ammon’s birth, confirmed that the Dinners Stone is the one with L.T. on it and not the memorial stone, told me about the Cotton Famine Road, and volunteered an opinion about the name Solider’s Lump. As she was not sure about the latter I have addressed an enquiry to the Ordnance Survey and will let you know what they say.
I am still hoping to get down for a few days to do the next section north to Eastwood before the end of the summer but cannot be sure of this yet. Your additional notes on this section will be useful, and if you can find out anything about the line of the TransPennine motorway I should be glad to have it.
I am sorry you didn’t get very far on your intended PW walk during the holidays. I agree the weather has been very poor. However, wait until the book is out, and then you can point out all my mistakes!
At present I am doing the Teesdale-Dufton crossing, which is magnificent country. With the help of friends with cars I have finished the walking and am now on the penwork. I must say I am enjoying the Pennine Way far more than I thought I would.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
9th August 1966
Dear Mr Chadwick,
Your letter of 29th July (‘proposed changes in the route of the Pennine Way’) was disturbing, but I must thank you for drawing my attention to the mischief that is being planned. I agree that the present route from Crowden to Black Hill is fine and could not be improved upon, so what are they playing at? Please keep me informed if you hear of any changes being approved.
I enclose a letter from the Ordnance Survey about Soldier’s Lump, which seems to support your original hunch that the name was given by army surveyors, and that Vera’s shot in the dark (that the name derived from the Volunteer Regiment formed to guard Yorkshire from French invasion 150 years ago) was wrong. Please return this letter and map.
Middleton-in Teesdale to Dufton is now in book form.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
c/o Westmorland Gazette, Kendal
25th October 1966
Dear Mr Chadwick,
I went to Rochdale on Sunday, the 16th, with the object of completing your section of the P.W. northwards from Standedge to Eastwood, and spent three days doing just that (average 5 miles a day!) very satisfactorily. I stayed at the Wellington Hotel in Rochdale (super-posh) and made good use of the trans-Pennine bus services both from Oldham and Rochdale. I met no other walkers on any of the three days.
The next section, over White Hill, I found dreary, but the gravel beds of Axletree Edge were much better to walk on and this area, down to the TV station, was rather enjoyable. I didn’t like the next bit, over Slippery Moss, and the vast bog of Redmires was a squalid mess: feet and legs soaking. Blackstone Edge was a big improvement, though nothing like as impressive as I had imagined. It was a shock to find the O.S. column-boulder defaced for ever by your name! (one way of achieving immortality!). I was uncertain which was the Aiggin Stone. Your notes stated that it was nearly lying on its side, and I assumed it was the one in the enclosed photograph (please confirm and return the photograph). The local library is trying to borrow a copy of ‘Roof of Lancashire’ for me so that I can give a note of its history. Do you ever remember seeing the stone upright? And in the location it now occupies? (some squared blocks nearby suggest that they have formed the base of it – see photograph no 2)
The Roman Road was a grand surprise, and in places better preserved than any I have seen. The section across to Stoodley Pike was also a good fast route, and more interesting because of the views. And, although the finish between a pig farm and a sewage works is, as you say, a sad end to your section, the easy downhill road into the Calder Valley was delightful: the sun was warm, the autumn colours of the birch woods glorious. In fact, before industry took over the valley, this must have been a beautiful countryside. I didn’t expect it – but perhaps its sweetness is exaggerated in comparison with the many miles of peat moors crossed since Edale. I am always surprised to find that this area is Yorkshire, which seems completely wrong because it is so much identified with Lancashire; geographically it certainly ought to be Lancashire.
As before, I found your notes and diagrams wonderfully accurate and helpful, and I would often have been quite bewildered without them. I will return them when I have completed my pages for this section.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
There were of course other things going on AW’s life while walking and researching the Pennine Way – and the reference in passing to some friends, not named, giving him a lift is interesting. One of his major concerns from this period was to do with animal charities. Now that he was making quite a bit of income from his Pictorial Guides – as he revealed at the end of Book Seven – he was keen to set up some sort of animal refuge.
38 Kendal Green
Kendal
11th November 1965
Dear Mrs Boyle,
I am prepared to enter into a covenant to pay to the Westmorland Branch of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals the sum of one thousand pounds per annum for seven years, the first payment to be made on 17th January 1967, for the purpose of providing a headquarters for the Society in Kendal. The annual payments would be made out of income that has already been subject to income tax, and the Society would, therefore, as a registered Charity be able to claim a refund of tax on each annual payment. In round figures the tax refund over the period would amount to about 4,500, and with interest accrued from investment of the annual payments as they are made, I estimate the value of the gift to the Society to be around 12,000 by the end of the seventh year.
This amount should be enough, I think, to erect and equip a small building with office accommodation for the Inspector (sufficiently large to be used as a Committee Room), a waiting room, clinic, surgery, store, and inside kennels and cages, opening on to an exercise yard or compound. I have in mind a central site, quiet and remote from private residences, which I hope it may be possible to acquire.
Apart from providing greater convenience for the Inspector, and freeing him from the present need to use his home as an office and animal shelter, the primary object would be to make available a ‘hospital’ where sick animals and birds could be brought for care and attention without charge, but voluntary contributions would be invited. I feel confident that there would be no lack of voluntary helpers to staff the building, but would expect the professional services of veterinary surgeons to be paid for in accordance with their normal charges.
I have discussed these and other matters with your Hon. Treasurer, Mr Cross, who will be able to explain my proposal in greater detail.
I should be grateful if you would kindly arrange for your Committee to consider this offer and let me know their decision in due course. In the meantime I should be obliged if the matter could be treated in confidence.
Yours faithfully,
AWainwright
Mrs Clara Boyle
Hon. Secretary
Westmorland Branch RSPCA
Eller How
Ambleside
Mrs Clara Boyle, local secretary for the RSPCA, was ‘overwhelmed’ by AW’s generosity, but when the proposal went up to headquarters, it developed into long drawn out discussions and meetings, with the RSPCA becoming worried that AW’s plan was too ambitious, would cost at least £20,000 and was possibly not worth it. In the end AW decided he would instead become involved with an existing animal sanctuary in Lancashire, and would have nothing to do with the RSPCA.
Meanwhile, he was still walking the Pennine Way and corresponding with Len Chadwick.
c/o Westmorland Gazette, Kendal
21st April 1967
Dear Mr Chadwick,
Thank you for keeping me informed on the latest ‘gen’ about the Pennine Way. It certainly does appear from what you say that a change in the route is proposed on the Crowden-Black Hill section. I find this disturbing. I was under the impression that the precise route had been determined and approved long ago, and cannot understand why the Ramblers’ Association or any other body should seek to alter it. The present route, as you say, is a good one and could not be improved upon. Please let me know if you hear of any developments. I think it’s a bit thick, but as I shall be having a few days in Penistone very soon I had better walk the new line, just in case.
I reached the stake on Alport Low, wet through, but things were impossible: I couldn’t take photographs and I couldn’t refer to maps in all that rain, so I fled back down Doctor’s Gate to Glossop, not without further troubles, for the beck was flooded and I couldn’t get across at the ford. So I am no nearer with the southern section. And this explains why your Bleaklow volume will look as though it’s had a rough time when you finally get it back. I will try again very shortly.
In complete contrast I had a magnificent day on the Penyghent section last Tuesday – a glorious day, the best of the year so far. I have now completed the whole route between Crowden and Dufton, having made a few trips recently to the Hebden Bridge – Keighley – Skipton area to fill in the gaps. I am enjoying making the book enormously, but if I hadn’t the book in mind I doubt whether I should spend my time on places like Ickornshaw Moor.
I am glad you are keeping well, getting new recruits, and still planning bigger and better expeditions. I don’t think I ever thanked you for the photograph, which I will treasure. Someday, perhaps to celebrate ‘A Pictorial Guide to the Pennine Way’, we must arrange a meeting.
In the meantime, best of luck and good walking.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright.
In his reply, Len revealed that he worked as a shorthand typist in the office of a Manchester cotton importer. Alas, it later transpired that this job was not all that secure.
c/o Westmorland Gazette, Kendal
29th June 1967
Dear Mr Chadwick,
Thank you for your letter of several weeks ago, written in Kendal on the eve of your expedition to the Howgills, which I hope proved successful. It was useful to have your notes about changes in the Pennine Way, which I will keep by me for the final revision, but I think I must come over again to see what is happening to the Trans-Pennine Motorway and try to find out from the engineer-in-charge how they propose to get the Pennine Way across it. I still haven’t done the Edale-Crowden section, but am making good but slow progress northwards where I have now reached Bellingham in Northumberland. A visit to Kirk Yetholm in May was a complete washout – 3 days non-stop rain and mist – but I expect to be up there again in August on a do-or-die attempt, because time is now running out on me. Then I must have another shot at Edale-Crowden, and take a look at the new route to Black Hill although I have seen no references anywhere to the change you have reported here. Who makes these changes, anyway, what authority have they, when the whole route has been approved by the National Parks Commission?
Hope you are having a good year with the Club.
AW
Dear Mr Chadwick,
Thank you for your very kind letter, and offer of further help. It does appear, from what you say, that I shall have to include the new route up Black Hill from Crowden (damn nuisance) and it would be a help if you would kindly reconnoitre it and let me have a few notes before the end of August.
A fortnight ago today I reached the Border at last, just above Byrness, with 20 miles still to do to Kirk Yetholm, and this last lap I hope to finish next month. Everything is going OK.
I was very sorry to hear of the threat of redundancy at work, and do hope that nothing comes of this. It must be very unsettling, at your age, to have a feeling of insecurity about the future, and I sincerely trust your fears prove unfounded.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
19th November 1967
Dear Mr Chadwick,
Just one final enquiry. Will you please ascertain the correct name of the buildings and masts on the summit of the Denshaw – Ripponden road? In your notes you have referred to this place as the Bleakedgate Moor TV Booster Station and I have done likewise in the book, but a doubt is creeping in. In a newspaper article about the new motorway I find it referred to as the ‘BBC Radio Transmitter on Windy Hill’. I wondered if you could look it up in the telephone directory, or ask at the Post Office, or, better still, give them a ring and ask how the place should properly be described.
The book is now nearing completion. I want, of course, to pay acknowledgment to those who have helped me, and should be glad if you would let me know the year of your birth and whether you are an active member of any recognised rambling or mountaineering club, or of any mountain rescue team, or anything else of particular interest. I take it I can correctly describe you as the Hon. Secretary of the Kindred Spirits Fellwalking Society – is this the right title? And your occupation, please.
I will soon be returning all the notes you kindly let me have.
Yours sincerely
AWainwright
Please reply to 38 Kendal Green, Kendal to save time, the Gazette office often hold letters up for weeks.
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
17 January 1968
Dear Mr Chadwick,
I have now completed the book and got it away to the printers. It will be published around Easter under the title of PENNINE WAY COMPANION. I feel pretty confident that you will like it, and will send you a copy when it is ready.
With regard to The Mystery of Bleakedgate Moor, I have described the contraption as a G.P.O. Wireless Telegraphy Station. This seemed safest. There is the authority of the Ordnance map for referring to it as a W.T. Station, and I cannot think that the W.T. can mean anything but Wireless Telegraphy. And you established that it belonged to the G.P.O. You will note that Holme Moss, which is a TV station, is described on the map.
I am now returning the remainder of your notes, which were a great help. If they are a bit soiled it is because they were well used. Also a number of letters, which may contain information you might require. These come back to you with my very sincere thanks for a job well done.
I hope you are feeling fitter these days. By a stroke of luck I managed to complete the P.W. walking just one week before the fells were closed for the epidemic, otherwise I would have been badly held up.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
Dear Mr Chadwick,
I was extremely sorry to learn from your letter that you are faced with the prospect of finding new employment, which is bad enough in itself but doubly so when it happens at an age when most men want nothing more than to stay quietly in their present jobs and cruise along uneventfully to retirement and a pension. You don’t sound hopeful of securing fresh work in the Oldham district, and it may well be that, although we read in the papers of there being more jobs available than men, this does not apply in south Lancashire. In the Midlands or around London you would have a fair chance of getting fixed up quite quickly, but I suppose you are not eager to leave your home territory – or the hills. Neither would I be.
It is unlikely that I could do anything to solve your problem myself. Since retirement I have lost touch and broken my contacts except insofar as they affect my books.
As you are going to have to start afresh anyway, could it not be the sort of employment for which you have a natural flair, something you could really enjoy? I am thinking, of course, of a wardenship of some small youth hostel or similar outdoor institution run single-handed, somewhere in the country, even in the wilds? Or forestry? Or reservoir-keeping? There is never much demand for jobs situated far from the creature comforts of the towns. You would have to sacrifice your clerical training and start something quite new, but does this matter? ‘something new’ may be something better.
I’m sorry I can see no way of helping, but hope you get fixed up quite soon in congenial work. Please keep me informed.
THE BOOK is starting printing next week. I will send you a copy as soon as available, probably around the end of March.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
3rd May 1968.
Dear Mr Chadwick,
I am owing you three letters, and am sorry I have been so slow in replying. Pressure of correspondence! First let me thank you for your very kind approval of PENNINE WAY COMPANION, which has (so far) had a good reception. You ought to be feeling that you have a proprietary interest in this book, and I hope that you consider the book sufficient reward for the many months of lonely reconnaissance and the miles of mud-slogging and the many doubts and difficulties you suffered on my behalf. Unfortunately I had to be very selective in what I included and what I left out in order to keep the book to reasonable dimensions, and masses of information had to be sacrificed for the public although everything was of inestimable value to myself. Your other letters have suggested improvements to the route, and I am quite sure you are right in saying that alternative passages you have tried out recently give better walking. But it is now too late to think of alterations to the present route: it is here to stay.
I am sorry to learn that you are not yet fixed up with a new job. About two months ago I had an enquiry from the C.H.A. about you, to which I was able to reply favourably, and I thought you might have been successful with your application to them, but apparently not. Then I heard, but only in a roundabout way, that the Y.H.A. were looking for a warden (single man) for their hostel in Mallerstang, but could not get confirmation of this and so did not write, imagining you anyway as being signed on by the C.H.A. In your letter received this morning there is a hint that your expect to have fresh employment soon, and I hope this materialises if the work is something you could enjoy doing. A Warden in the Lake District was also advertised for recently, I noticed, (850 p.a.), but I am afraid age would be against you for this job although there was no age-limit in the advert. However, I hope you will have good news soon.
I am making good progress with WALKS IN LIMESTONE COUNTRY, which I am finding much easier to do than the Pennine Way. Not only is the territory around Ingleton and Settle much pleasanter to walk, and much more interesting, but it also happens to be within close range of Kendal, so that I can pick out the good weather, and not find myself marooned in lodgings in bad weather far out in the wilds.
I am glad to see you are still very active with your walking programme and trust you have a successful year on the hills with no worries as to where your next meal is coming from.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright