Don't just book it...

Interesting read from today's Mercury.

One hundred and seventy-five years ago today, a worldwide leisure revolution began in Leicester.

Thomas Cook, then the General Overseer of the Temperance Society in Market Harborough, was looking for a publicity-grabbing stunt to attract attention to his teetotal cause.

As the footsore 35-year-old hobbled through Kibworth from Harborough to a meeting in Leicester, "a thought flashed through my brain: what a glorious thing it would be if the newly-developed powers of railways and locomotion could be made subservient to the promotion of temperance," he recalled.

John Fox Bell, secretary of the Midland Counties Railway told Cook: "I know nothing of you or your society, but you shall have the train."

Cook had two weeks to make his idea work. He called on other Midlands Temperance societies to support him, printed handbills to advertise his new-fangled excursion, printed and sold one shilling tickets and talked a Loughborough landowner, Mr Paget, into opening his park as an added attraction, complete with a gala.

The trip took place on Monday, July 5, 1841. Nine open carriages – standing only, no seats – were packed with 485 passengers who left the old Campbell Street station, off Leicester's London Road, for the trip to Loughborough: the first carriage was even reserved for a travelling band.

"At Leicester and Loughborough, there were from two to three thousand spectators assembled to witness their departure and arrival," reported the Leicester Chronicle. "Every bridge along the line was crowded to have a peep at the train in its progress."

After their sooty, open air 10-mile trip through the lush countryside, the travellers alighted and paraded from the station into Loughborough town centre, then on to William Paget's park, now known as Southfields. There, they rested and ate, before returning to the station to greet about 200 of their fellow teetotal travellers from Derby and Nottingham, plus Market Harborough and neighbouring villages.

"Having been thus strongly reinforced," continued the Chronicle, "they perambulated the town in goodly array — the whole population lining the streets and filling the windows, as they passed along."

Off they tramped to the Market Place, where they formed themselves into a circle, sang the Teetotal National Anthem, then set off back to Paget's park, where they sat down to tea, while "the band played several lively tunes".

There were marquees, music, cricket and dancing. Speeches drew huge applause – although the chairman of the event, the Rev Babington, called for a show of hands in support of the movement, as he could not distinguish who were genuine teetotallers, because many present had "suspiciously rosy cheeks". After the last travellers made their way home, the event was judged such a success that Cook repeated his excursions from Leicester to Liverpool and Scotland.

In 1855, he organised his first overseas package, from Leicester to Calais. From his fine offices near Leicester Clock Tower, Cook steadily built up his travel empire.

The business expanded over the following decades, with trips to Europe, the United States, Egypt and Palestine.

During 1872 and 1873, Cook organised and led the first round-the-world tour, covering more than 25,000 miles in seven months.

In the years that followed, his company also pioneered the traveller's cheque and guidebook.And, in 1919, the business, by then called Thomas Cook and Son, became the first travel agent to advertise trips by air. As the wheels of Cook's train slowly rolled towards their destination on this day in 1841, little could he foresee that a multi-billion pound industry was born.

By the time of his death in 1892, Thomas Cook had, in the words of his epitaph, 'brought travel to the millions.'

From those 485 travellers leaving Leicester train station in 1841, the Thomas Cook Group now has a fleet of 97 aircraft, 2,926 stores, 32,722 employees, and over 19.1 million annual customers, making it the second largest travel company in Europe.

#History #Cook #Leicester