Ward Lock & Co – Bournemouth Poole and District

"The use of a reliable guide book doubles the pleasure and interest of a holiday.  These well-known books are not dull, dry-as-dust compilations. but pleasant travelling companions, readable from cover to cover.  Each volume contains the latest Maps and Plans and is lavishly illustrated.  In all cases a much wider area is included than the title indicates, and it will be found that nearly every holiday and health resort of importance is described in one or more of the volumes."  (Source:1924 Ward Lock Red Guide promotional leaflet)

The earliest Ward Lock travel guides were published in 1880, the guides however adopted their familiar red cloth covers in 1892.  By the end of the century, 72 guides had been published, covering different towns and areas in England & Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Channel Islands and a number of Continental destinations.

According to the book Adventure in Publishing, The House Of Ward Lock, 1854 to 1954, by Edward Liveing, Ward and Lock "noted the public’s growing tendency to explore the British Isles.  The ubiquity of the railway lines had played its part in the growth of the travel at holiday times and the increasingly popular “weekend”.

" Gradually a great series was worked up until, as today, every holiday district and seaside resort of consequence was covered by its own particular Guide.  A special staff of qualified editors and correspondents continually toured the land, compiling and revising material on all places and matters of interest to the holidaymaker and on such subjects as the local history, geology, botany and zoology of the areas concerned."  (https://wlrg.z33.web.core.windows.net/page/aboutRG.html)