A very simple but very special Memorial Window to a man who wished for little apart from the joy of walking in the Lakeland Mountains and Fells of Cumbria. His name was Alfred Wainwright (1907-1991).
He set himself the task of climbing every one of Lakelands fells, not just by one route but just about every way of accent possible and whilst doing so writing but perhaps more importantly drawing and mapping each route as the walker would see it. So good were his drafting skills that his guide books were printed, not with type faces, but as facsimiles of his hand drawn and written pages….quite a skill and what unique guides they still are.
I never knew the man, but just like many thousands of hill walkers, I feel that through his Guide Books that I really did……indeed a friend on the hills.
He wanted no grave, no monument, but as he so well expressed in one of his books his wish was for his ashes to be scattered on his favourite mountain and added this text…. “and if you, dear reader, should get a bit of grit in your boot as you are crossing Haystacks in the years to come, please treat it with respect. It might be me”.
The window above can be found in the Shepherds Hillside Church in Buttermere and looks directly at Wainwrights favourite Mountain and resting place, Haystacks.
So simple, so just right, so nice.
11th January
© David Oakes 2014
DAVID OAKES - IMAGES. 