to download a PDF of Footsteps - The Wainwright Society

10
Wainwright in the News
As far as Wainwright-related stories
are concerned, the auction in June of
Wainwright’s notebook and annotated
Ordnance Survey maps could well be the
most significant news item of this year.
The story broke on 7 June, with a press release
by H & H Auction Rooms of Carlisle giving
details of the impending sale together with a
photograph of a double-page spread from the
notebook with descriptions of routes of ascent
and descent on Little Hart Crag. Comparing
these notes with Wainwright’s chapter in
The Eastern Fells, it was clear that these were
far more extensive and comprehensive than
appeared in the finished book. If these were
Wainwright’s first drafts for Book One of the
Pictorial Guides, then this was a very important
artefact indeed and one we believed the Society
should seek to acquire for the Archive in Kendal.
It was agreed that an assessment of the
notebook should be made to ascertain its
importance and, following discussions with the
Cumbria Archive Centre, Anne Rowe, their
Service Manager, visited the auctioneers in
Carlisle to look at the material. The result of
her visit was that she considered the notebook
to be an important document, so much so that
they would be prepared to put in some funding
to help secure the notebook for the Archive.
Anne also felt that the auctioneer’s guide
price of £2000–£3000 was ‘about right’ but,
to everyone’s surprise, that estimate was well
below the eventual selling price.
Photograph by H & H Auction Rooms, Carlisle.
That, of course, reflects the uncertainty of the
‘live auction’ process and it was realised that
the limited funds the Society could put towards
the sale might not secure the notebook. With
insufficient time to ask members for pledges
of money, it was suggested that our Chairman,
Eric Robson, might contact a small number of
potential donors in order to assemble a fund that
would give us a reasonable chance of success.
This increased dramatically with two very
generous donations from our two Honorary
Presidents, Betty Wainwright’s daughters, Jane
King and Annie Sellar. Without their contributions,
the outcome would have been very different.
A few days before the auction, we had decided
what our ‘highest bid’ should be. This had
to take into account the buyer’s premium
charged by the auction house, as well as VAT.
We reckoned we could bid up to £7,500 which,
with the buyer’s premium and VAT, would take
us up to a little over £9,000, the fund we had
available. Since no one was able to attend the
auction in person at Carlisle, John Bewick was
‘volunteered’ to do the bidding by telephone.
Here, John takes over the story of the auction …
On the day of the auction (25 June) I was advised that
someone would ring me about five minutes before the
lot was going to be presented. I suddenly found myself
on the end of a telephone, with bids being relayed to
me by a member of the auctioneer’s staff. With a
catalogue ‘guide price’ of around £3,000, the bidding
started at £1,500 and within two minutes it had
increased to £5,000! I was advised that no further
bids were being made ‘from the floor’ but that there
was another telephone bidder against us. In less than
a total of five minutes, the bidding – going up in £100
stages – was at our agreed figure of £7,500. What
to do? I must say I’m much happier risking my own
money that someone else’s.
I decided to keep going, on the basis that I couldn’t
exactly be fired by the Society and it would be criminal
to miss out by a few hundred pounds. About one
minute later, the bidding reached £8,200 which, with
the buyer’s premium and VAT, would total £10,000 –
nearly £1,000 above our agreed target. ‘Keep going,’
I told myself, ‘We’ll get the funds from somewhere.’
At £8,500 I thought that we had probably been
beaten and made one final bid of £8,600. Silence
at the other end. Then, I could hear the auctioneer
saying, ‘at £8,600, going, going, ........... Gone!’
We’d won it!
I contacted Eric and others on the Committee and,
thankfully, they were all delighted that we had
secured the items, even at that higher level. And,
thanks to the generosity of certain individuals, the
extra money was found. It also transpired that the
auction had been recorded by ITV News and it was
very strange for me to be able to view the bidding
via a lady in the corner, whom I’d never seen, on
the telephone to me and next to another lady
talking to the ‘opposition’ …
At home, in Suffolk, my telephone started
ringing within half an hour of the auction. I was
contacted by ITV and BBC reporters wanting
interviews for their local news programmes
that day. Radio Cumbria also wanted an
interview. Since I was not in the area, and Eric
was unavailable, Anne Rowe kindly agreed to
act as spokesperson for the day. I had several
telephone interviews with journalists from the
local press and within twenty-four hours the
story was being reported in their online editions.
Yes, this was a very big news story!
Photograph by H & H Auction Rooms, Carlisle.
The notebook and OS maps are now in the
safe-keeping of the Cumbria Archive Centre
and will be available for everyone to see, along
with all the other Wainwright Archive items,
when cataloguing has been completed
Before the auction, there was insufficient time to
contact members to ask for donations to secure
the notebook and OS maps. Over the past ten
years, however, the Society has built up reserves
of capital to enable it to support initiatives such
as the replacing of the View Indicator on Orrest
Head. Without this reserve, we would not have
been able to mount a successful bid for these
important items.
After reading this article, Society members
may like to make a retrospective donation,
which will help to replenish our reserve for
future need. If you would like to contribute
to this cause, please send your cheque,
made payable to The Wainwright Society, to:
Notebook Donation, The Wainwright Society,
c/o Kendal Museum, Station Road, Kendal,
Cumbria LA9 6BT.
Derek Cockell, Press & Publicity Officer
John Bewick, Society Development Officer
11