A persuasive package

Paul Smith is holding the exhibit with the sort of delicate touch you might reserve for an original Shakespeare manuscript or a John Lennon lyric sheets. In terms of impact on Western society, the little green book does not quite belong in such elevated company – but, as a paper fragment of 1845, it is fragile enough that its cover and pages are tucked into a plastic envelope. Paul is taking no chances. He puts it back on the table with care.

“As far as I know, this is the only surviving example of a handbook which was given to travellers on an organised trip from Leicester to Liverpool,” he explains. “It mentions accommodation as well as travel arrangements. Thomas Cook was not booking these hotels for his clients at this point, but the germ of the package holiday was clearly there.”

Thomas Cook – two words which have become synonymous with the modern concept of package travel, but which also come with plenty of heritage. Tuesday marks the 175th anniversary of the first tour organised by a Leicestershire printer who could not have envisaged that his simple scheme would become a colossal company.

Born in the Derbyshire market town of Melbourne in 1808, Thomas Cook was a man of religious conviction who, in 1841, began dabbling in transport plans for his fellow followers of the temperance (abstinence from alcohol) movement. That first jaunt was a rail hop from Leicester to Loughborough – but operations quickly expanded beyond local trains.

“The tour to Liverpool, just four years on, was booked by 1,200 people,” Smith says. “It was so popular that Cook had to repeat it, for 800 further

Widening horizons, with Switzerland to the fore, in the 1901 brochure

Brochure for 1928’s extravagant four-continent circular tour from New York

Fresh colours and post-war optimism on the cover of the 1954 brochure

The handbook for the 1845 tour to Liverpool, which transported 1,200 people

Chris Leadbeater winds back the clock on 175 years of Thomas Cook holidays

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