Even in his late seventies, AW was acquiring new correspondents, though with his eyesight getting weak and his body frail, and still doing so many books and TV programmes, he was not keen on long correspondences as he had been in the old days.
Judy Naylor, however, received a regular stream of letters starting in 1981 when she wrote to him with what he said was an unusual request. Mrs Naylor, of Appleby, was a member of a conservation group called Eden Field Club. It was the Year of the Disabled, so she decided to take a group of disabled people on a field trip – but where?
38 Kendal Green, Kendal, Cumbria
15th July 1981
Dear Mrs Naylor,
Thank you for your interesting letter of July 6th.
Your enquiry is so different from others I receive! And it poses a problem I must confess I have never even thought about – until now. I do so applaud your kind intention to give a party of the disabled a day in the country – a splendid gesture – and your choices of venue are excellent.
The Westmorland Borrowdale: from the gate at the Tebay end the road into the valley is narrow and tarred for a mile, and if you wished to start the walk here you would find it almost traffic-free and easy going for wheel-chairs. It leads gently uphill between mature trees with glimpses of Borrowdale Beck down on the right. At the end of the tarmac, just beyond a little bridge over a stream, the open fell on the left is the habitat of many flowers, including birds-eye primrose (not in flower in August) and marsh orchid. The road continues as a rough farm track and soon descends to a bridge over the main beck where there is a delightful bathing pool. As far as the end of the tarmac the road is public and cars used to be parked on the verges there, but the farmer protested and the County Council planned to make a small car park there – whether his has been done I cannot say, not having been in the valley for some years. If it has you could take cars along instead of leaving them by the gate (there will be a notice there stating whether you can proceed further).
Bretherdale: similarly unfrequented. The tarmac road ends beyond the last farm at a couple of barns where cars can be parked. From this point a rough track continues upstream, probably too rough for wheel-chairs.
Neither valley has any history of note. It is thought that the Roman road from the camp at Low Borrow Bridge entered Borrowdale for a short distance before climbing over the fells. And Borrowdale is the valley where a huge dam and reservoir was proposed a short time ago, a plan that has happily been abandoned or at least postponed. Bretherdale is the place where a golden eagle was first sighted on its return to Lakeland about 15 years ago.
Another outing to suit your requirements would be to Shap Abbey, in a lovely quiet hollow alongside the River Lowther, where the party could perambulate or sit by the river, and of course inspect the ruins. If the Abbey has not been seen by the party before, this is the outing I would most recommend as the one least likely to lead to difficulties.
Let me say again that it is most kind of you to plan this little treat for others less fortunate. I should be interested to learn in due course how you fared.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
19th August 1981
Dear Mrs Naylor,
Thank you for your report on the outing to Borrowdale. I was so glad to learn that the event, blessed by a nice day, was such a success.
Many of your disabled friends must be very restricted in their activities, and you have earned their gratitude by giving them a day to remember. Their smiles of pleasure are your reward.
AWainwright
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
27th June 1983
Dear Mrs Naylor,
Thank you for your card and syllabus. I would have been glad to attend your outing on June 19th but was away from home. However, I hope to be present on some future occasion. Indeed, I am myself getting to a stage of infirmity that might qualify me for inclusion in the party. Old age, you know!
Best wishes. It is jolly nice of you to give pleasure to others less fortunate.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
Mrs Naylor had written to him after their annual expedition each year, inviting him along, but he never came. In the summer of 1985, she got a call from a woman asking if she could join the walk with her husband. ‘Can he walk?’ asked Judy. ‘Oh yes,’ said the voice. Judy did not at first recognize Betty and AW when they turned up, as no names had been given. They went on the walk and enjoyed it, though AW didn’t manage the walk the following year.
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
27th November 1985
Dear Mrs Naylor,
Thank you for a very kind letter.
I remember with pleasure our visit to Borrow Beck last summer and your generous hospitality. I hope we shall meet again on a similar occasion next year, and again be favoured with a sunny day.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
But they did become friends and over the next few years, Judy visited him at home, taking him some Three Nuns tobacco, his favourite. Later, when AW was ill, Judy sat with AW while Betty went shopping.
In 2010, Mrs Naylor, aged ninety-one, had moved to a home on the South Coast. ‘I still feel so stupid that I never recognized him that time.’
Another woman who received quite a few letters was a Mary Reinbeck of Carlisle, who shared her memories of the good old days with AW. She died in 2003.
c/o Westmorland Gazette,
KENDAL, Cumbria
24th September 1979
Dear Mary,
Thank you so much for one of the sweetest letters I have ever received.
It was extremely kind of you to write to me in such complimentary terms. I felt better after reading it. All warm inside, you know. It’s nice to be told your work is appreciated. People these days take everything for granted.
Your story of your youthful wanderings on the fells was most interesting. With so few walkers around in those early days you certainly didn’t lack courage in visiting the wild places you mention, but I am sure you must have enjoyed every step of the way. Sometimes I wish the old days would come back. There was a romance about the Lakes in those days that, sadly, seems to be vanishing. It must be the crowds and the coaches, which we never knew then. Keswick was quiet, and I remember when the only place for a meal at the end of a walk was Dalzell’s chip shop – 2s 6d for a full tea.
It is good to know that you can still manage the lesser fells. Don’t give up. And when you can no longer climb, just sit outside the caravan and look at them. The mountains are the best friends of all.
Thank you for taking the trouble to write, and for doing it so very nicely.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
Dear Mr Kenyon
Thank you for your letter. I am in a quandary about the drawings you want. I have none of the Lake District at present, but there will be some later in the year, about November, and you may prefer to wait. I have a few of North Wales and Bowland at 12.50 and a number of Scottish mountains at 8 pounds. Would you like me to send you three Scottish ones on approval, that is, you can return them if not to your liking. Or would you rather wait?
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
4th March 1983
Dear Mary,
Bless you for an extremely kind and interesting letter.
I share your sentiments about the Eden, most beautiful of all rivers, and really enjoyed exploring its surroundings. I am glad it has given you pleasure.
I was interested to read of your early years in the district especially about your journeys on the now-finished railway over the Solway, which in fact I didn’t know even existed until I noticed it on an old map. Don’t you think the old days were the best? I do. The romance has gone out of life. As I grow older I am [illegible] by fond memories that never seem to fade.
Thank you again for writing. And may 1983 be a good year for you.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
Dear Mary,
It was nice to hear from you again. Thank you for your kind remarks about the television programmes on Scotland. Can’t say I enjoyed doing this much, and I didn’t like the background music in places where the silence should have been respected, but on the whole the experience was enjoyable and Carlisle-born Eric Robson was a good companion and always helpful.
Well, time passes and there is no stopping it. Let’s count our many blessings and give thank for a good life.
Love to Muffin. We now have eight resident cats, all strays and all much loved.
Yours sincerely,
AW
One lucky correspondent who managed to get two letters from him, neither of any consequence, was Mr H. Davies of North London, who was, at that time, living part of the year at a cottage on the Caldbeck fells. Later he sent AW one of his own books.
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
Dear Mr Davies,
It’s a pleasure.
But why a London address when Lakeland is at its enchanting best?
Sincerely,
AWainwright
Dear Mr Davies,
Thank you for sending me an advance copy of your latest epic publication.
Unfortunately I cannot see to read the blessed thing, my eyes being too bad, and therefore cannot attempt a review.
Looking through it dimly I imagine you have had a lot of fun compiling the book and I hope a sufficient number of readers enjoy it and make the venture worth while.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
Other correspondents rarely managed a sequence of letters, but as ever he replied to each reader – whether they were about purchasing one of his drawings – and he sold almost all the originals from his sketchbooks and others, except his guidebooks, for around £10–£12 each, all monies going to Animal Rescue – or boasting how they had climbed all 214 of what were now being called the Wainwrights.
38 Kendal Green, Kendal, Cumbria
30th July 1980
Dear Mr Smith,
Many thanks for your letter. The recital of some of your Lakeland adventures struck a chord with more, I also having suffered many agonising races against the clock in the years when I had no car and had to rely on bus services.
The original drawings are always sold for charity. The next batch will be of the Eden Valley and may not be of much interest to you, but these will be followed in the late autumn by a set of 100 from a book, Lakeland Mountain Drawings, amongst them being a nice one of Harrison Stickle.
The Westmorland Gazette maintain a mailing list for out-of-town readers and advise them of each new publication, with details of the sale of the drawings. I have asked the Gazette to add your name to the list, so that you will get advance notice.
Best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
9th September 1982
Dear Mr Wilkinson,
It was a joy to receive and read your account of adventures in the Howgills and Lakeland and to browse through your fine accompanying photographs. What memories you revived for me! Not for years have I seen most of the scenes you depict so well and recollections were fading. It’s so nice to be reminded!
Yes, as a wearer of glasses for the past 60 years I met the same problems as yourself in rain and wet mist. I used to wonder if I could devise wind-screen wipers with matches, but, being an innocent in technical matters, made no progress with the idea.
Thanks again for the pleasure your letter gave me, and for the time and trouble of writing. And of course for the photos.
May you enjoy many more happy seasons of fell wandering – in dry conditions.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
3rd December 1985
Dear Mr Wilkinson,
Thank you for your kind letter and enclosure. Yes I remember your earlier letter about the Howgills – still a very favourite area for me. I often return to them.
You ought to be ashamed to associate your name with Burness F.C. How are the mighty fallen! Their decline over the past ten years has been amazing. Perhaps Blackburn Rovers will take them over. I still watch the Rovers twice a year, but football is not as entertaining and exciting as it used to be. There are sweepers and strikers today and nobody keeps to his allotted position. There are no wingers like Jack Bruton today, more’s the pity. Anyway, there are always the hills.
Yours,
AW
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
19th January 1983
Dear Martyn,
Thank you for your interesting letter. I add my congratulations to the many you must have had on climbing all the 214 fells in Lakeland. I wish I could say you have broken a record, but in fact over the past few years I have had many letters from others who have done the same.
I envy your ambition to get to the top of all the Munros – a formidable enterprise indeed. Don’t judge the Scottish mountains by the Cairngorms. Wait until you have been to Glencoe and Wester Ross and Torridon and Sutherland – these are the areas where the most magnificent mountains are to be found they put the Lakeland fells to shame. I wish you well.
I know Lammack quite well. My early years in Blackburn were spent in the Audley and Shadworth areas.
Thank you again for writing to me.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
38 Kendal Green, Kendal, Cumbria
10th August 1983
Dear Mr Davys,
Thank you for a very kind letter and a most interesting account of your recent holiday in Lakeland. How fortunate you were with the weather! About Knock Murton: it does seem a surprising omission, but the reason for leaving it out of the Outlying Fells was the reference I made to it on page Blake Fell 4 in the Western Fells book – that the summit had been sealed off by a Forestry Commission fence and was therefore out of bounds for walkers. I call it ‘the forbidden peak’. At the time, I climbed the fence and went to the summit, finding it delightful (as were the bilberries!) but I really couldn’t recommend a trespass, especially by OAPs.
I greatly appreciate your generous comments and thank you again for taking the trouble to write, and for doing is so nicely.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
15th July 1984
Dear Mrs Hargreaves,
Thank you for your very kind letter.
I am so glad you now have a photograph of Innominate Tarn. This will seem to bring your husband closer, and I am sure it will be a source of comfort and that it will have pride of place in your home. It was extremely thoughtful of Mr Boucher to provide it for you. As you say there are still people who go out of their way to show consideration for others. Well done, Mr Boucher.
With all good wishes,
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
38 Kendal Green, Kendal, Cumbria
1st May 1985
Dear Bob,
Thank you for your letter, copy of magazine and photos. The Litt memorial photo is excellent, and I am glad to know it is surviving the years. The one of the shelter of Great Borne does not revive any recollections: I must have missed it. Remarkable to find it in so unfrequented a spot: I think it must have been erected by the local shepherd for his own use. Don’t mention Black Hill to me! I hope your campaign for loans (and new prints) is doing well enough to justify your optimism.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
In 1986 AW got a letter from a Mrs Patricia Brooks of Ipswich, who asked him if he remembered a relation of hers, a noted Kendal doctor called Dr Cockill. He did his rounds on a pony and trap, and during the war took it upon himself to destroy peregrine falcon’s eggs as he believed falcons were killing off pigeons which were being used by the RAF to carry messages.
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
14 December 1985
Dear Mrs Brooks,
Thank you for a most interesting letter that carried my mind back to my early years in Kendal: they were the wartime years when the area was a reception centre for evacuees. I knew Dr Cockill; he was given the Freedom of the Borough for his services. You were probably fortunate with the weather on your recent visit to the Lakes at the end of the wettest summer I can remember.
Best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
AW kept copies of many of his letters – either a carbon if they were typed or an exact handwritten copy if they were not. At the end of the following letter to someone called Julian in 1986, Betty has written on the copy ‘Forthright as always!’
Dear Julian,
I have received your letter and enclosures, but cannot help you on principle. In my young days if I wanted to do something special, I had to save my own money until I could afford it, or do without. The idea of begging money from strangers to further my own purposes was unheard of. This is a principle that should be followed today.
Sincerely,
AWainwright
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
2nd September 1986
Dear Mrs Austen,
Thank you for your interesting letter. It was certainly a splendid performance by your son (and his father!) to complete the Coast to Coast walk in such fine style and I hope they both enjoyed the adventure.
I get many reports of family parties who have done this walk but I have never heard of an 11-year-old (or less) having done it. Perhaps your son has broken a record! In any case he has every reason to be proud of his fine achievement.
Your sincerely,
AWainwright
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
21st October 1986
Dear Mr Sager,
Thank you for your kind letter. It is always a pleasure to hear from others who share my love of the Lakeland fells, as you so obviously do.
Your climbing of all the 214 fells, especially as you live so far from the district, was a splendid performance for which you have my congratulations. I was not aware of the omission of mile 214 from page 83, and was amazed when I looked it up to confirm what you say. I don’t think I can blame the printer. It was an aberration on my part which I find very difficult to understand.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
17th October 1987
Dear Mr Sager,
Thank you for a kind and interesting letter.
Let me satisfy your curiosity on the matter you raise. True I was born and brought up in Lancashire but both my parents came from Penistone near Sheffield, so that I am never sure whether to call myself a Lancastrian of a Yorkshireman. I have always felt an allegiance to both counties.
Glad you enjoyed the book, and thanks again for writing to tell me so.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
A lady called Marjorie – no surname or details are known, as the letters were bought from a dealer by a Wainwright fan – got two letters, in which AW is saying that at his age, he feels it is time to retire.
38 Kendal Green, Kendal, Cumbria
9th February 1986
Dear Marjorie,
It was a pleasure to read your delightful account of recent wanderings on the Lakeland fells. What memories your words bring back to me! And memories are all that is left to me. I am now in my 80th year and no longer able to get up to the tops and ridges as I used to. Now I have to be content with writing about them. But I still regard days spent on the fells as the best days of all. Today, from my window, I can see them arrayed in mantels of pure white, but for me they are out of bounds. I don’t complain. Instead I count the blessings of a very long innings of infinite delight. So I think you should take every opportunity to return to the beauty of the Lakes while you are still able to enjoy walking on the hills.
Thank you for troubling to write, and please do so again when you have further adventures to relate. I hope you have a splendid summer and many happy expeditions.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
38 Kendal Green, Kendal, Cumbria
11 May 1987
Dear Marjorie,
Thank you for another kind and delightful letter, as usual a joy to read. It is good to know that you have enjoyed further expeditions on the fells since you last wrote, and in particular I am glad you have successfully accomplished the Gable Girdle despite unfavourable weather. But, as you say, this walk is a memorable experience in any conditions.
This summer I shall be busily engaged in Scotland, filming a series of five TV programmes with the BBC, recalling the highlights of my travels in the Highlands over the past forty years. My swan song, surely. It really is time I retired. But for you I wish many more happy expeditions on the fells in the years ahead.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
3rd February 1987
Dear Mr Barnes,
Thank you for your kind letter and birthday wishes.
Your question rather surprised me because I never regarded a camera as essential. I did carry one, though, but only to record features of interest, not with any thought of picturing superb landscapes. My first, 45 years ago, was an Ensign (?), and later I used a secondhand Baldur (German). They would seem antiquated by comparison with today’s cameras!
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
23rd February 1987
Dear Mr Hardcastle (I think; sorry I could not decipher your name)
Thank you for your letter. It is always a pleasure to hear from others who share my love of the Lake District, as you so obviously do.
You point out an error in ‘Ex-fellwanderer’ with such conviction that I am sure you are right. I remember the year as 1963 and wrongly assumed that it was the end of that year when Lakeland was transformed into a fairyland by a three-months frost. I remember the conditions so well: it was a glorious winter. Thank you for putting me right and taking the trouble to do so.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
3rd April 1987
Dear Mr Chester,
Thank you for a very kind letter.
I can sympathise with you about miseries inflicted by Scottish midges. To avoid their attention make your visits to Scotland before the end of May or after the end of September. They don’t trouble me as I am usually in a halo of tobacco smoke. They never bother people who chain-smoke cigarettes. They are afraid of getting lung cancer.
I have had dozens of letters and photographs of the rowan tree at Buttermere over the years and am confident that this is the subject of your picture, its stunted growth due to a lack of nourishment for its restricted root system.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
19th April 1987
Dear Ian,
Thank you for your kind letter.
In reply to your enquiry, all my hand-written books are reproduced from original manuscripts of exactly the same size, nothing being reduced or enlarged.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
38 Kendal Green, Kendal, Cumbria
20th January 1988
Dear Mr Procter,
Thank you for a kind and very interesting letter.
It is always a great pleasure to hear from others who share my love of the Lake District, as you so obviously do, and it was an added delight to read of your earlier life in Blackburn in circumstances akin to mine. I agree with you that those early times were happy in spite of the many disadvantages of life in those days. Blackburn’s town centre today has lost all its former interest. I go back there only twice a year to watch the Rovers and am always glad to get away.
Your apprenticeship on the Lakeland fells was also similar to mine. Early visits were like magic, and the beauty of the scenery has never palled even after nearly fifty years of living amongst it.
I hope you are able to continue your visits and enjoy many more happy expeditions in the years ahead.
AWainwright
The Milton Mountaineers, referred to in a letter by George Male in January 1988, were a group of blind climbers.
24th January 1988
Dear Mr Male,
Thank you for your letter and its kind invitation to me to become President of the Milton Mountaineers, which I count as a great honour, having admired their performances over many years.
My own failing eyesight would seem to be a fitting qualification for the position but after much thought I am forced to the conclusion that old age would not, and must gratefully decline. I am now in my eighties and unable to get around as I used to. I am much too ancient to take on commitments I could not fill properly.
However, I am still capable of standing treat for you all on the occasion of your assault of Blencathra and enclose a cheque to pay for the dinner etc. We shall not be able to join you. For the week commencing May 14th we are already booked for a log cabin near Plockton.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
c/o Westmorland Gazette, KENDAL
30th December 1986
Dear Mr and Mrs Mallam,
Thank you for a very kind and most delightful letter.
Your experience in Yordas Cave was extraordinary. In several visits I have never seen lighted candles there and I am curious about their origin. So far as I know the cave has no religious associations.
Your letter was both interesting and enjoyable, and a joy to read. Thank you for taking the trouble to tell me of your adventures. I hope you continue to have many more happy expeditions in the year ahead.
With best wishes for 1987,
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
38 Kendal Green, Kendal, Cumbria
15th August 1987
Dear Valerie and John,
It was a pleasure to hear from you again and to learn more of your adventures in Limestone Country (and around Kendal Green!). You are the first to report completing all the walks in my book, and I can well appreciate your regret at coming to the end. I felt exactly the same: it is an area of which I am particularly fond and I thoroughly enjoyed every expedition I made there. All had their delights and surprises and excitements, Ingleborough perhaps most of all. Hunting all the named potholes and caves was my particular joy.
I have long given up hope of having my lost pipe returned to me. Countless searches have been undertaken according to correspondents. It is still there somewhere.
I hope Ingleton lives up to expectations and that you find more of the delights of limestone country.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
The Mallams of Shrewsbury wrote to AW several times, and received several letters back. At first, he gave his address as c/o the Westmorland Gazette, as he usually did with fans, but when he moved on to revealing his home address and calling them Valerie and John, they became emboldened enough to try to doorstep him. He wasn’t in. However, they did a lap of honour around the Green and then pinched a pebble from his drive. They confessed this in a letter to him, hence AW’s reference to ‘around Kendal Green!’, complete with exclamation mark. It was a warning to him that he should not become too familiar or reveal his real address to often, just in case the hordes descended.