The Making of a Cultural Landscape The English Lake District as Tourist Destination, 1750-2010

For centuries, the English Lake District has been renowned as an important cultural, sacred and literary landscape. It is therefore surprising that there has so far been no in-depth critical examination of the Lake District from a tourism and heritage perspective. Bringing together leading writers from a wide range of disciplines, this book explores the tourism history and heritage of the Lake District and its construction as a cultural landscape from the mid eighteenth century to the present day. It critically analyses the relationships between history, heritage, landscape, culture and policy that underlie the activities of the National Park, Cumbria Tourism and the proposals to recognise the Lake District as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It examines all aspects of the Lake District's history and identity, brings the story up to date and looks at current issues in conservation, policy and tourism marketing. In doing so, it not only provides a unique and valuable analysis of this region, but offers insights into the history of cultural and heritage tourism in Britain and beyond.

Contents: Foreword; Preface; Part I Lake District History and Identity: The Lake District landscape: cultural or natural?, Susan Denyer; Setting the scene, John K. Walton; The landscape encountered by the first tourists, Angus J.L. Winchester; Landscape and society: the industrial revolution and beyond, John K. Walton; American tourists in Wordsworthshire: from ’national property’ to ’national park’, Melanie Hall. Part II Lake District Tourism Themes: The imaginative visitor: Wordsworth and the Romantic construction of literary tourism in the Lake District, Keith Hanley; ’Inhabited by strangers’: tourism and the Lake District villa, Adam Menuge; The origins and development of mountaineering and rock-climbing tourism in the Lake District, c. 1800-1914, Jonathan Westway; Sport, tourism and place identity in the Lake District, 1800-1950, Mike Huggins and Keith Gregson. Part III Lake District Tourism Case Studies: Claife station and the picturesque in the Lakes, Sarah Rutherford; Furness Abbey: a century and a half in the tourists’ gaze, 1772-1923, Jason Wood; The post-industrial picturesque? Placing and promoting marginalised Millom, David Cooper; Select bibliography; Index.

Professor John K. Walton is IKERBASQUE Research Professor at the Department of Contemporary History, University of the Basque Country, Leoia, Bilbao, Spain and Jason Wood, is Director of Heritage Consultancy Services, Lancaster, UK.