Kendal In The Nineteenth Century by A Wainwright Find!
Doreen's enthusiasm for T'Bacca Queen led me to delve further into books about Kendal's past and particularly Fellside. Alfred Wainwright well known for his pictorial guides, but less well known for his other works, produced one such book 'Kendal in the nineteenth century'.
In this fascinating book, Wainwright makes use of his skills as an artist to preserve a collection of old photographs by amateur camaramen by "conversion" of them into a series of pen drawings. Accompanying the sketches are maps of the period, the nineteenth century, and a "descriptive and historical narrative".
Wainwright's distinctive writing style is just as informative on Kendal's history as ever his descriptions of the numerous paths over the Fells. Just read what he says in his introduction to the section on Fellside: "No part of Kendal had more character than the huddle of cottages perched like a Tibetan monastery on the steep slope rising west of the town centre and collectively known as Fellside. The buildings were compact and cramped, and their arrangement chaotic, without plan or pattern: they faced all ways, were on different levels and linked by a maze of tortuous alleys." You can almost hear AW's voice!
It was as Wainwright acknowledges, thanks to local Fellsider, Jack O'Connor, author of "Memories of Old Kendal", that many of the early photographs upon which his sketches were based, were saved and given to Kendal Museum. It is a good job that such a collection was assembled for now all but a few of the old cottages have been cleared to be replaced by new houses. "Cleared away too is the charm of this once picturesque quarter of the town. The old Fellside is dead".
Beautiful drawings and informative words make this book a treasure. Rather than just shopping in Kendal, I intend to devote a day to stroll through the Auld Grey Town with a copy of the book in my bag (it's too big for my pocket!) and follow in Wainwright's footsteps once again, though not on the green grass of the fells this time but on the tarmac and cobbled yards and streets of the town!
28 September 2009 from Anne
Finds
- Grange-over-Sands: The Story of a Gentle Township
- The Silent Traveller: A Chinese Artist in Lakeland
- Red Ike
- Cumbrian Privies
- Ethel Fisher's West Cumbrian Dialect titles
- The Embalmer's Book of Recipes by Ann Lingard
- Nella Last's Peace
- Riding the Stang by Dawn Robertson
- Life on the Fell - a pictorial chronicle of a Lakeland community
- About Scout Scar
- William Wilberforce - A Summer Diary 1779
- Beatrix Potter - the unknown years
- Smoke over Shap by Margaret Potter
- Songs of a Cragsman by George Basterfield
- The Grasmere Dialect Plays
- The Grizedale Experience: Sculpture, Art & Theatre in a Lakeland Forest
- An Atlas of The English Lakes
- How Hall. Poetry and Memories. A Passion for Ennerdale by Tom Rawling
- Stumpy, Hero of the Lakes
- The High Places by A. Harry Griffin
- The Highest House in Wathendale
- Kendal by Roger Bingham
- Secrets and Legends of Old Westmorland
- Reminiscences of Wordsworth Among the Peasantry of Westmorland by Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley
- Little Gods by Jacob Polley
- A Lakeland Summer
- Hunter of Harter Fell by Joseph E Chipperfield
- And Nobody Woke Up Dead
- An accessible paradise
- The Fleming Family novels and Graham Sutton
- Excursion to Loweswater. A Lakeland Visit 1865
- Writing on the Wall
- Beyond Scafell by Alan Robinson
- Rogue Herries by Hugh Walpole
- Kendal In The Nineteenth Century by A Wainwright
- In There Somewhere
- The Bondwomen by W G Collingwood
- "Ah'd Gaa Back Tomorra!"
- A Cumbrian Copper by Ray Huddart
- The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards
- Old Will Stories by Dudley Hoys
- The Shield Ring by Rosemary Sutcliff
- T'Bacca Queen by Theodora Wilson Wilson
- Furness and the Industrial Revolution
- The Shadow of Black Combe
- The Painted Letters of Percy Kelly
- Ivver Sen
- Lakeland in the 1830s
- Wasdale Climbing Book By Michael Cocker
- Riding High by Barbara Sneyd
- Deborah in Langdale
- Early Recollections of Grange
- Hazard's Way by Roger Hubank
- Yan, Tan, Tethera
- Talk of the Town
- Capturing the Mountains
- Hope On, Hope Ever
- Mildred Edwards: Our City Our People 1889 - 1978 Memories
- Lakeland Limericks
- Surrounding loveliness
- Haweswater by Sarah Hall
- Coast to Coast by Jan Minshull
- Sunshine To The Sunless
- Geese, cattle wallopers and secret Irish paths
- Anarchists, Angels and wet Bank Holiday Mondays
- A more unconventional kind of find...?
- Skiddaw Summit by Kathleen Jones
- Thorstein of the Mere: A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland
- Wednesday Early Closing
- Smoke Across The Fell
- The Sand Pilot of Morecambe Bay
- The Chronicles of Boggerthwaite
- Carrock Fell
- Feet in the Clouds
- Hercules and the Farmer's Wife
- Shepherd's Warning
- The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
- I've been so busy reading I haven't had time to blog!
Recent posts
- Thank you!
- Coffee and books at the Bluebell Bookshop
- Mary learns to blog!
- Lucky 13!
- Grange over Sands get reading
Help the team
Have you got something to contribute? You can contact us to report your clues and you can comment on our blog posts. It doesn't matter where in the world you are!
Leave a comment