The Wainwright Memorial Lectures

The first Wainwright Memorial Lecture was held in 2003, when the speaker was the Patron of the Society, Hunter Davies. The first two lectures were held at the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick before moving to its present venue, the Rheged Centre, near Penrith. The majority of our lectures have attendances of over 200 members and guests (members receive a discounted entrance fee).

There has been a wide range of excellent speakers since the first lecture was held, including Derry Brabbs, John Merrill, Rory Stewart MP, Alison O’Neill, Alan Hinkes, Terry Abraham, Richard Else, Clive Hutchby, and David Powell-Thompson.

The Wainwright Society proudly presents an evening celebrating Mountain Rescue and the Coast to Coast National Trail

in support of the Mountain Rescue teams along the route in the national parks of Cumbria, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors.

Saturday 26th September 2026 @ 7.00pm – Rheged, Penrith

22nd Wainwright Memorial Lecture 
‘Rooted in the North’ by Linda and Lizzi Collinge MP

Saturday 4th October 2025

Linda Collinge, who is Alfred Wainwright’s great-niece and the grand-daughter of AW’s older sister, Annie, and her daughter Lizzi Collinge who is MP for Morecambe & Lunesdale, gave a joint lecture sharing memories of Wainwright through the eyes of his family and the times in which he lived.

‘Rooted in the North’ took us on a Wainwright family journey from their original Yorkshire roots in Penistone, to the Lancashire industrial town of Blackburn where Wainwright was born and spent his formative years, then to his later life in Kendal, the place where he wrote his famous Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells.

There were readings from family diaries and entertaining stories including Alfred’s love of Coronation Street and the revelation of his favourite character being Jack Duckworth! Alfred saw his own upbringing reflected in this TV drama – ‘I know these people … I grew up among them’.

Musical excerpts accompanied the slides – including The Happy Wanderer, the Coronation Street theme and Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs by Brian and Michael. The talk had a very emotional ending, as the beautiful hymn, Abide with Me, played out against the backdrop of Wainwright sketches. It was a lovely and fitting tribute to Alfred and his work.

21^st Wainwright Memorial Lecture by Graham Uney

Saturday 28^th September 2024

Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides remain the gold standard for describing the routes to the top of the 214 Lakeland fells included in his seven books. What AW didn’t set out to do was provide walk routes for joining the fell tops in a number of day or weekend walks. Over the years a number of experienced Lake District walkers have taken on this challenge and have suggested how the 214 might be completed in 36, 48 or, in Graham’s case, 64 walks.

Graham illustrated his talk with many superb photographs of the Lake District fells in different seasons and at different times of the day, some of them taken during his work as one of the winter Fell-Top Assessors on Helvellyn.

‘The author carried out his explorations surreptitiously, and without permission (not caring to risk a refusal): he was not detected, but this may possibly have been due to his marked resemblance to an old stag …’ Pictorial Guides, Book Two, The Nab p. 3