The Wainwright Society has enrolled its thousandth member.

The organisation, formed to study and promote the works of The Grumpy Old Fellwalker Alfred Wainwright, announced the milestone at its memorial lecture at the weekend.

Margaret Blowey of Cheshire received a boxed set of Wainwright’s Lakeland Sketchbook series at the event at Rheged, near Penrith. The society is in its fifth year.

Speaker at the event was journalist and broadcaster Cameron McNeish – yes, that man again – who bravely told the gathering that he and fellow Scots used to pour scorn on those English hillwalkers who needed guide books to get them up the fells and safely back.

However, he had relented and, of course, now has a lucrative sideline publishing his own guide books to the Scottish mountains.

After his presentation, the former president of the Ramblers’ Association in Scotland was presented with honorary membership of the Wainwright Society by its secretary Peter Linney.

Previous speakers at the memorial events have included Radio 2 broadcaster Stuart Maconie, the society’s chairman Eric Robson and Countryside Agency boss Richard Wakeford.