Women and Wanderlust
Recently visiting Wanderlust and Lipstick - a top website for women travellers - we were reminded of one of our favourite female adventurers.
Mabel Barker was a woman way ahead of her time, a passionate teacher, a fearless rock-climber, and a devoted friend of Millican Dalton.
Sometimes people presume that we must sell our travel bags mainly to men. But that’s not true. We had as many women as men scouring our Millican retail stand at this summer’s shows. And they weren’t all shopping for their menfolk!
The truth is that women love adventuring just as much as men, and Mabel Barker is an inspiring role model in this regard. So what can we learn from her life about leading a life of bold adventure, unconstrained by social convention.
Remember Your Childhood Passions
Mabel grew up with a love of nature. She clearly had a bug for the outdoors in her blood. Her father was an enthusiastic cyclist on his Penny Farthing, later riding a motorbike into his 80’s. However, even he and Mabel’s mother were sometimes alarmed by their daughter’s passion for cycling and fell-walking. Mabel never lost touch with these passions, pursuing them throughout her adult life with students and friends.
Let Fellow Adventurers Encourage You
When Mabel brought a party of school girls to the Lake District in 1913, she first encountered Millican Dalton. We can guage something of his impact on her by his first recorded words to her when they went climbing. “Skirt detachable? Take it off?” Hardly words for the ears of a genteel young lady in Edwardian England!
But the fact is that Mabel and Millican had plenty in common in their heartfelt desire to carve out their own way in life. They were both well-educated, both passionate about Nature, and both opinionated about society, freedom and the value of experiment.
When Millican ordered Mabel’s skirt off, she wrote, “I obeyed and knew the feel of the rope for the first time”. It was the beginning of a close bond between them that would see them climbing in the Lake District and Austria, and shinning up trees in Epping Forest! Millican encouraged Mabel in her passions and whetted her appetite for further adventure.
Dare To Do Things Differently
One of the boldest ways that Millican and Mabel flouted convention was in their arrangements for Mabel’s brother’s wedding day in 1919. After a church service, the quartet headed up to a cave used by Millican on the flank of Castle Crag in the Lake District. There they enjoyed a wedding breakfast of chicken, boiled by Millican in a billycan. No wedding dress or morning suit for bride and groom. It was tweeds only!
"Sports after wedding breakfast" near Millican's Cave, September 1919. Photo taken by Mabel Barker.
Later that afternoon, the quartet enjoyed themselves climbing in and around a set of nearby quarries. Typical of Mabel that she should have encouraged her brother in this eccentric and unusual wedding day!
Take The Lead At All Opportunities
As a woman, Mabel would have been used to deferring to a man in Edwardian society, especially one who had superior knowledge to her. However, Millican quickly spotted her climbing ability and was happy to let her take the lead on their expeditions. Mabel wrote, “When we climbed together, it was rather a shock to find that I was expected as a matter of course to take the lead”.
Later, she also proved a pioneer in her expeditions with another climbing partner, C. D. Frankland. In 1925, she ascended Central Buttress on Scaffel Crag - the hardest route in the Lakes which had only been conquered three times and never by a woman. The following year, with Frankland, she became the first woman to traverse the Cuillin Ridge on the Isle of Skye. Mabel always seized an opportunity and was unafraid to lead.
Photo courtesy of keepwaddling1, Cuillin Ridge and Loch Coruisk
Find The Fun In Life
Mabel was a passionate educator and thinker about issues of earth, community and sustainability. But she was also tremendously spirited and fun. One of her pupils caught this mix of elements in her nature: “She believed strongly in social progress for women, wanted to live on her own terms. She was very direct in manner, wore tweeds, and had hair coiled on her head. She had a great sense of fun, wanting to engage with young people. She was fond of animals, owning black labs and retrievers, and a pet jackdaw called Johnnie that used to sit on her shoulder”. Mabel even owned a pet badger called Judy. Albeit Judy was dispatched to London Zoo after she bit her owner!
Turn Tragedy To Good Account
C.D. Frankland was one of Mabel’s dearest friends. In 1927, aged forty-one, she was climbing Napes Needle with him when he fell to his death. Mabel had to descend to reach his body. She cradled his head in her hands, mourning her dearest climbing partner.
Frankland’s death didn’t break her spirit, however. In many ways, Mabel felt that he had died doing what he loved and had found his natural resting place in his beloved landscape. She wrote, “I can be glad that my friend is dead... There is nought to fear, and the mighty mountains shall keep the rest”.
Moreover, Frankland’s death seemed to prompt Mabel to initiate change in her own life. It was after his death that she set up a pioneering school in Caldbeck, Cumbria, developing a radical curriculum for her pupils. The school became a innovative force in combining practical education with the wide outdoors. So students were encouraged to climb boulders, make looms, go brambling, build dams and igloos, and make marmalade.
Be Yourself At All Costs
As an adventurer, Mabel was not a woman cut out for domestic cares and anxieties. She has been described as carefree with money. Her generosity also extended to a warm sense of hospitality. After she settled in Caldbeck, she would keep a pan of broth on the stove for the benefit of tired hikers who trudged past her door.
Mabel resisted living in the shadow of any other human being, despite her passionate interest in people and community. She never dropped out of society like Millican, preferring to work within society’s margin to achieve her goals. She could enjoy a close friendship with the Caveman of Borrowdale but she found her own way to express herself and to put into practice her ideals. In short, she had her own original mind and didn’t allow herself to over-influenced by others, however much she admired them.
Even on her deathbed in August 1961, she could make a passionate plea that rights of access to the fells should remain for walkers. She lived by her convictions and spoke them out, right to the end.
There are other sides of Mabel that we’d love to share more - her innovative views for the time about the importance of connection with the earth, and her radical agenda for outdoor education - but these will have to wait for another time.
For now, we hope you’ve taken some inspiration from this unusual woman - surely the very match of our namesake, Millican Dalton.
Mabel Barker was a woman way ahead of her time, a passionate teacher, a fearless rock-climber, and a devoted friend of Millican Dalton.
Sometimes people presume that we must sell our travel bags mainly to men. But that’s not true. We had as many women as men scouring our Millican retail stand at this summer’s shows. And they weren’t all shopping for their menfolk!
The truth is that women love adventuring just as much as men, and Mabel Barker is an inspiring role model in this regard. So what can we learn from her life about leading a life of bold adventure, unconstrained by social convention.
Remember Your Childhood Passions
Mabel grew up with a love of nature. She clearly had a bug for the outdoors in her blood. Her father was an enthusiastic cyclist on his Penny Farthing, later riding a motorbike into his 80’s. However, even he and Mabel’s mother were sometimes alarmed by their daughter’s passion for cycling and fell-walking. Mabel never lost touch with these passions, pursuing them throughout her adult life with students and friends.
Let Fellow Adventurers Encourage You
When Mabel brought a party of school girls to the Lake District in 1913, she first encountered Millican Dalton. We can guage something of his impact on her by his first recorded words to her when they went climbing. “Skirt detachable? Take it off?” Hardly words for the ears of a genteel young lady in Edwardian England!
But the fact is that Mabel and Millican had plenty in common in their heartfelt desire to carve out their own way in life. They were both well-educated, both passionate about Nature, and both opinionated about society, freedom and the value of experiment.
When Millican ordered Mabel’s skirt off, she wrote, “I obeyed and knew the feel of the rope for the first time”. It was the beginning of a close bond between them that would see them climbing in the Lake District and Austria, and shinning up trees in Epping Forest! Millican encouraged Mabel in her passions and whetted her appetite for further adventure.
Dare To Do Things Differently
One of the boldest ways that Millican and Mabel flouted convention was in their arrangements for Mabel’s brother’s wedding day in 1919. After a church service, the quartet headed up to a cave used by Millican on the flank of Castle Crag in the Lake District. There they enjoyed a wedding breakfast of chicken, boiled by Millican in a billycan. No wedding dress or morning suit for bride and groom. It was tweeds only!
"Sports after wedding breakfast" near Millican's Cave, September 1919. Photo taken by Mabel Barker.
Later that afternoon, the quartet enjoyed themselves climbing in and around a set of nearby quarries. Typical of Mabel that she should have encouraged her brother in this eccentric and unusual wedding day!
Take The Lead At All Opportunities
As a woman, Mabel would have been used to deferring to a man in Edwardian society, especially one who had superior knowledge to her. However, Millican quickly spotted her climbing ability and was happy to let her take the lead on their expeditions. Mabel wrote, “When we climbed together, it was rather a shock to find that I was expected as a matter of course to take the lead”.
Later, she also proved a pioneer in her expeditions with another climbing partner, C. D. Frankland. In 1925, she ascended Central Buttress on Scaffel Crag - the hardest route in the Lakes which had only been conquered three times and never by a woman. The following year, with Frankland, she became the first woman to traverse the Cuillin Ridge on the Isle of Skye. Mabel always seized an opportunity and was unafraid to lead.
Photo courtesy of keepwaddling1, Cuillin Ridge and Loch Coruisk
Find The Fun In Life
Mabel was a passionate educator and thinker about issues of earth, community and sustainability. But she was also tremendously spirited and fun. One of her pupils caught this mix of elements in her nature: “She believed strongly in social progress for women, wanted to live on her own terms. She was very direct in manner, wore tweeds, and had hair coiled on her head. She had a great sense of fun, wanting to engage with young people. She was fond of animals, owning black labs and retrievers, and a pet jackdaw called Johnnie that used to sit on her shoulder”. Mabel even owned a pet badger called Judy. Albeit Judy was dispatched to London Zoo after she bit her owner!
Turn Tragedy To Good Account
C.D. Frankland was one of Mabel’s dearest friends. In 1927, aged forty-one, she was climbing Napes Needle with him when he fell to his death. Mabel had to descend to reach his body. She cradled his head in her hands, mourning her dearest climbing partner.
Frankland’s death didn’t break her spirit, however. In many ways, Mabel felt that he had died doing what he loved and had found his natural resting place in his beloved landscape. She wrote, “I can be glad that my friend is dead... There is nought to fear, and the mighty mountains shall keep the rest”.
Moreover, Frankland’s death seemed to prompt Mabel to initiate change in her own life. It was after his death that she set up a pioneering school in Caldbeck, Cumbria, developing a radical curriculum for her pupils. The school became a innovative force in combining practical education with the wide outdoors. So students were encouraged to climb boulders, make looms, go brambling, build dams and igloos, and make marmalade.
Be Yourself At All Costs
As an adventurer, Mabel was not a woman cut out for domestic cares and anxieties. She has been described as carefree with money. Her generosity also extended to a warm sense of hospitality. After she settled in Caldbeck, she would keep a pan of broth on the stove for the benefit of tired hikers who trudged past her door.
Mabel resisted living in the shadow of any other human being, despite her passionate interest in people and community. She never dropped out of society like Millican, preferring to work within society’s margin to achieve her goals. She could enjoy a close friendship with the Caveman of Borrowdale but she found her own way to express herself and to put into practice her ideals. In short, she had her own original mind and didn’t allow herself to over-influenced by others, however much she admired them.
Even on her deathbed in August 1961, she could make a passionate plea that rights of access to the fells should remain for walkers. She lived by her convictions and spoke them out, right to the end.
There are other sides of Mabel that we’d love to share more - her innovative views for the time about the importance of connection with the earth, and her radical agenda for outdoor education - but these will have to wait for another time.
For now, we hope you’ve taken some inspiration from this unusual woman - surely the very match of our namesake, Millican Dalton.
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