Post-War Motoring in the Lake District, the 1920s and 1930s

Chapter 6 explores Lake District tourism during the inter-war period, focusing on what impacts mass-motorization made on roads, tourist behaviour, local life, and the cultural value of the Lake District. The growth of charabanc and coach travel brought increasing numbers of day trips and tours from ever more distant places, creating a new battlefield for local complaints and conflicts. When a mountain electric railway from Ambleside to Keswick was proposed in 1921, many were convinced that it would be preferable to the constant streams of dust-raising charabancs. Eventually, a groundswell of opinion arose that mountain solitudes and walkers’ and cyclists’ rights should be protected from the ‘rash assault’ of unlimited road construction and queues of cars. Amid this motor-age controversy Wordsworth was once again summoned to give voice to modern discontents. Controversial plans to construct new roads over Wrynose and Hardknott Passes, and a by-pass road through Dora’s Field below Rydal Mount, were abandoned.