Simon McGrath

We’ve dug through the archives of an unlikely source to unearth some of the earliest images of recreational hillwalking in Britain. As you’ll see from the Campi■g a■d Carava■■i■g C●ub’s fascinating collection, the peaks may not have changed much, but the

entrusts Trail with the Camping and Caravanning Club’s photo archives, containing some of the earliest images of British hillwalking

When you think of mountains and the early part of the 20th century, your mind probably drifts towards heroic and tragic tales from iconic peaks in faraway ranges. Mallory and Irvine perishing on Everest, Shackleton crossing South Georgia against all imaginable odds, an almost endless list of tragedies on the fearsome north wall of the Eiger… but what about plucky old British hillwalkers? Before the start of the 1900s, walking as a form of leisure was growing in popularity across England, Wales and Scotland, but mountains were generally considered off-limits for the average rambler.

Access to the wider countryside had been limited for centuries as a result of the Enclosure movement, until a group of 400 walkers took matters into their own hands. In 1932 an organised trespass on the moorland plateau of Kinder Scout between Manchester and Sheffield kickstarted a movement that led to the establishment of National Parks, National Trails, and unrestricted access across 10,000 square miles of countryside that we still enjoy across Britain.

Coincidently, just down the hillside from Kinder Scout in Edale, that very same year, a group of 15 walkers gathered to form a new group that has continued to blaze a trail for hill and mountain walking in Britain for almost nine decades. The Camping and Caravanning Club may not be an organisation that conjures visions of daring ascents and Alpine adventure, but the creation of their Mountaineering Section eventually resulted in all of that and more. From walking in the Scottish Highlands and climbing in Snowdonia, to camping in the Lakes and claiming the highest summits in the European Alps, the members of this special group were early pioneers in establishing hillwalking as a recreational activity for the British public – and the club went on to become a founding member of the BMC in 1944.

Many of the group’s stories, however, have remained hidden since its formation, until a collection of 18 albums spanning from 1932 to 1984 was recently discovered in the Club’s archives. The fascinating collection of more than 2000 photographs contains some of the earliest recorded images of recreational mountain activities in Britain, and is the focus of a new exhibition touring National Parks in England and Wales this summer. It kicked off in Castleton’s Peak District National Park Visitor Centre in June, and will be on display at the Plas y Brenin National Outdoor Centre in Snowdonia from 12 July to 8 August.

Our highlights are displayed across the following pages...

1940 Club archives show there was a healthy contingent of female hillwalkers involved from the very start – as shown by this group traversing Snowdonia’s Crib Goch. One woman, Hilda Richmond was a prolific ice climber and featured regularly in the early archives, but was tragically killed by rock fall on an expedition to the Himalayas in 1939.

1933 High on the Peak District’s Kinder Scout plateau – the scene of the decade’s iconic ‘mass trespass’ – a group of walkers stroll carefree across the frozen surface of a stream that tumbles in great cascades down Kinder Downfall just a few metres away.

1936 No Gore-Tex or synthetics here! Wool, tweed and ‘nailed boots’ were common hillwalking attire, even in winter conditions on Ben Nevis’ CMD arête.