Wanderlust Rambling Club
The late 1920's and early 1930's saw the birth of the first
national outdoor movement. This was the time of the Great
Depression, when town-dwellers began to seek escape and
recreation in the countryside. One of these towns was
Grimsby, at the mouth of the Humber, with countryside
not far away. It has sea marshes to the south. To the
West, the land is undulating silt and clay. After about
4 miles, this changes abruptly into the Wolds - along
the line of the pre-ice age coastal cliffs.
The Wolds are one of the great features of Lincolnshire,
with rolling chalk hills and plateaux - broken by hidden,
wandering valleys. This was the countryside into which
groups of walkers descended. One of these groups was the
Wanderlust Rambling Club, formed in 1932 by a youthful
Nev Cole, from his friends of lads and lasses in the town -
all in their teens. How did the Club get its name? Legend
has it that after long discussion, the name was taken from
one of the lasses rucksacks - bearing the name "Wanderlust".
The Club has a pile of dog-eared notebooks, "The Wanderlust
Logs". Each ramble has been meticulously recorded, with
press cuttings and photographs. On Sundays the group used
to cycle out of town with great capes, which served as
protection from the rain, for both cycling and walking.
The Second World War was soon to intervene, with many of
the group serving in the forces for five years or more.
Nev himself was in the army for over five years, seeing
action in France, the Western Desert, Sicily and Italy.
The Club was reinstated in 1945 with a much-depleted
(and more mature) group in a quite different countryside,
changed in the desperate need to grow more food. Most of
the pastures were now arable fields and many of the green
lanes and paths had been obliterated.
For some years the Club numbers remained very low,
because of the bad and unusable paths, coupled with more
affluent times - where people were enjoying their motorcars
and other activities. By the late 60's/early 70's, the tide
was turning, with more and more people joining the club.
They did not quite have the youthfulness of those in the
1930's, but made up for it with their great enthusiasm.
The Wanderlust Club was the only active club in the Grimsby
area at this time.
Over the years, a number of our members have devoted
much time and energy into the formation of the Grimsby
and Louth R.A. Group, the "Viking Way" and the protection,
improvement and promotion of the local footpath network.
The club produced a series of fifty walks, in two booklets,
to celebrate its 50th anniversary. These have now been
revised and extended by Club member Don Shaw, in a series
of books. The flagship walk of North East Lincolnshire
Council and of the Club is the "Wanderlust Way', a 20 mile
walk, starting and finishing at Bradley Woods, Grimsby.
Originally called "The Bradley Twenty", the walk was devised
by the former Humberside County Council and renamed
"The Wanderlust Way" - following the death of Nev Cole
in 1989. It was renamed in recognition of his lifetime's
work in protecting and promoting the enjoyment of the
Countryside, which we enjoy today. Also in 1989, the
Wanderlust Rambling Club devised a walk called
"The Nev Cole Way". This is a long distance walk of 57
miles, running from Burton-upon-Stather to Nettleton.
It celebrates his life, the creation of the Club and
his friends in the Ramblers Association groups (which
now exist all over Lincolnshire) but not least, the
Wanderlust Rambling Club of Grimsby.
Alec Malkinson
