First step on a journey of discovery

David Overend takes a retrospective view of walking guides and thumbs through the latest ones

Walking has moved on a long way (quite literally) since the days of Mountford John Byrde Baddeley. And guide books for walkers have moved on even further.

Which is probably a good thing. When Baddeley's Lake District guide (Thorough Guide to the English Lake District) first appeared in 1880, rambling was a pastime for the relatively well-off. The poor walked because they had to, the wealthy walked because they wanted to.

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Such was the success of Baddeley's guide (and others to various parts of the country, including Yorkshire) that it continued to be revised and reissued for almost a 100 years. Now, the early editions, largely text-based, with maps by John Bartholomew, are collectors' items.

They may have been generalised, giving motoring and accommodation advice and low-level walks as well as outline guides to walks on the fells, but they still make fascinating reading. My own, slightly battered edition, dates from the 1920s and is like a portal to the past – particularly the notes in the margins, hand-written by its first owner. Bed and breakfast in Patterdale in 1932 seemed to go down very well, according to the spidery fist of an obviously avid hiker who paid just 32 shillings (1.60). Not for the night, for the week.

But times – and people – have changed in more than a century. Blame it on the Kinder Trespass, which aimed to gain access for the common man and woman to the thousands of acres of private land in the Peak District; blame it on Tom Stephenson's vision of a footpath along the Pennines from Edale to Scotland; blame it on Alfred Wainwright, the doyen of guide books for the walker, whose precise and artistic books of the Lakeland fells, the Pennine Way and coast-to-coast walk probably encouraged hundreds of thousands of people to put on a pair of boots and take to the open air.

Or blame it on more free time, better access to the fells, more cars, improved footwear and clothing. And, of course, better guide books. Perhaps not better than Wainwright's artistic-wise, but certainly more colourful, more water-resistant and virtually idiot-proof, which, as I get older, make them very appealing.

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I will continue to read AW's little gems and I will always find time for Baddeley's, but they will no longer accompany me into the wilds. But the new books will.

Which means that I have to head for the hills in Lakeland to make use of Mark Reid's Walking Weekends: Lake District. Paradoxically, this isn't a very colourful book; in fact, it's basically monotone and perhaps a bit large for easy use. But it does what it needs to do – give you a map of the walk, a detailed description of the route and the relevant information needed to get round safely. And there are points of interest.

The shortest of the 24 walks is just under nine miles; the longest is 14. Some are relatively gentle strolls; others demand a bit of mountain nous, but they are all circular hikes from a man well known for his Inn Way series of walking books and his regular contributions to the Yorkshire Post's Country Week.

Bill Birkett's Walk The Langdales tells you in the title that this slim, spiral-bound book is all about – the Langdales. The maps aren't as detailed as Mark Reid's, but they are more colourful. In fact, this is a very colourful publication with plenty of photos to accompany the 20 circular walks, which range in distance from just two-and-a-half kilometres to 14. Choose from easy to very difficult, from child-friendly to adults only.

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And finally, back to Alfred Wainwright's coast-to-coast, from St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay, a challenging walk which has, in the 30 years since he first devised it, become something of a classic.

I bought his guide as soon as it appeared, but I never got any further than reading it and marvelling at AW's incredible penmanship – so I am still some 180 miles short of the epic crossing from west to east through the three national parks of the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors.

But the new guide to the walk, Coast to Coast, by Sandra Bardwell, could be just the kick up the posterior I – and many more similarly-disinclined hikers – need to motivate us to tackle what is cracking walk, through some of the best countryside in England.

Yes, the maps aren't up to Wainwright's artwork, but they don't need to be; this latest book is virtually a step-by-step guide.

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Any way, sensible ramblers will take 1:25,000 maps of the route as well as the guide, which is colourful, well detailed, has accommodation and transport information, is spiral-bound and, joy of joys, is waterproof.

Bring on the rain.

Coast to Coast (12.50) by Sandra Bardwell is published, in March, by Rucksack Readers, Landrick Lodge, Dunblane, FK15 OHY. 01786 824696. www.rucsacs.com

Lake District (9.95) is published by InnWay Publications, 102 Leeds Road, Harrogate. 01423 871750. www.innway.co.uk

Walk The Langdales (8.95) is published by Bill Birkett Publishing, Dale View, Little Langdale, Ambleside, Cumbria LA22 9NY. 015394 37329. www.billbirkett.co.uk

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