IMPORTANT FIGURE: Wainwright

A BID for £250,000 is being made to keep rare documents used by famous fellwalker Alfred Wainwright in Cumbria.

A collection of memoirs, correspondance, notes, photographs, sketches, maps and papers used by Wainwright – affectionately known as AW by his legions of devotees – to write his pictoral guides is being offered for sale by his family.

The Cumbria Archives Service – part of Cumbria County Council – has been given the opportunity to buy the collection – which it currently has stored in its publically accessible archives – to keep it intact in the county Wainwright loved so much. “The collection contains the papers that supported the writing of the guidebooks and I think they are very important,” said Peter Eyre, assistant county archivist at the Cumbria Record Office in Kendal. “I think Wainwright was a very important figure in Cumbrian history. He had a huge impact in getting people to visit the Lake District in the post-war period. He is an important cultural and literature figure in Cumbrian history.”

The asking price of the collection has not been confirmed but figures ranging between £100,000 and £200,000 have been mentioned on walking websites. The Cumbria Archives Service will be submitting an application for funding of around £250,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund by March. The funding application process is likely to take at least a year. “We are looking at aquiring the collection but things are at a very early stage,” said Mr Eyre.

Should the bid be successful it is likely the items would be placed on permanent display in Kendal, but could be moved around the county on touring exhibitions. The campaign is being supported by the Wainwright Society – set up to ‘keep alive the things which AW promoted through the guidebooks’. “I think that it is essential that we keep them in the area and also keep it as one collection, because quite often you get things split up,” said John Burland of the Wainwright Society. “The society supports the campaign to keep it in Cumbria because anyone with any sense of Wainwright associates him with the Lake District.”

Gareth Cosslett, communications manager at Cumbria County Council, said: “The collection is important, not just because it is materials he used to create the guidebooks, but also because they are a record of the Lakeland Fells before it was opened up to mass tourism.”