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Shell Guides

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I must admit, I am rather partial to watching Michael Portillo’s television programme Great British Railway Journeys.  He uses a Victorian guidebook called Bradshaw’s Guide which was a comprehensive travel guide to the railway system in Great Britain of the day.   Jump forward a number of years to 1934 when another set of guidebooks were being written, this time by the famous poet, Sir John Betjeman.  He wrote guidebooks not for the railway enthusiast but now for the motorist.

Sir. John Betjeman
Sir. John Betjeman
 

Sir Betjeman initiated these books for the motorist because he wanted everyone to see what the real towns and villages in the counties were really like.  Previously you could only visit the countryside either by foot, bus or train.  Now as more people were buying cars there was a greater demand for petrol and as a result going for a car ride was gaining great popularity. 

Sir John Betjeman worked in collaboration with Jack Beddington who was head of publicity at Shell at the time and it was Shell that sponsored the guides.   

The first Shell Guide was called “Cornwall Illustrated in a series of views of Castles, Seats of the Nobility, Mines, Picturesque Scenery, Towns, Public Buildings, Antiquities, etc”.  It was published by the Architectural Press in June 1934, and it was given the long title as a humorous mocking of the old 19th century guidebooks of the day.  The book was spiral bound in card wraps therefore not many have survived.   

At Stella and Rose’s Books, at the time of writing, we have a spiral bound copy of the Somerset Shell Guide which was published in 1936 and is a rare example of an early Shell Guide. 

Somerset
Somerset Shell Guide
 

The early pre-war titles used coloured paper for the full-size photographs. This was something which set them apart from other guides of the time. Some photographs were a full page, and others were juxtaposed with contrasting or similar images. Photos included shots of buildings and also architectural details.  There were maps, a gazetteer as well as illustrations.

SomersetSomerset Map
Somerset Shell Guide
 

After the guide to Cornwall was published in 1934 other guides followed in quick succession with Kent, Wiltshire and Derbyshire appearing in 1935, followed by Devon, Dorset, Buckinghamshire and Somerset the year after.

The early guides were often written by Betjeman’s friends, many of whom were from his student days at Oxford.  A number of writers were also artists, clerics, academics, painters and photographers, such as John and Paul Nash, Roger Mayne and John Piper who was also an editor. This meant that the quality of photographs and images used within the guides were of the highest quality.  The writers of the guides were also encouraged to express their prejudices and passions in their writing. This approach is explained in Betjeman’s letter to Lady Juliet Smith:

The value of the Shell Guides is to tell people what places are really like… a record of what England is now and a candid personal opinion of each parish and town. It’s no good writing a comprehensive and impersonal catalogue. That is already being done in Pevsner’s Buildings of England. Don’t bother too much about dates and styles … Pick out [the buildings] you like … and don’t be too frightened of saying that a place is hideous if you don’t like it.’

When Sir Betjeman joined forces with artist John Piper in 1937, they used three publishers, The Architectural Press, Batsford and Faber & Faber.

Architectural Press
Architectural Press
Batsford
Batsford
Faber & Faber
Faber & Faber
 

Before 1939 thirteen guides had been published, with Faber and Faber taking over as publishers from Batsford in 1939, who had themselves taken over from the Architectural Press. Faber and Faber just managed to publish the guide to Gloucestershire in June 1939 before the Second World War broke out.

With the outbreak of war, Betjeman and Piper, who were jointly working on the guide to Shropshire, had to curtail their research. Piper became an official war artist and Betjeman worked for the British intelligence.  The guide was finally published in 1951.   After the war the guides began reappearing regularly again, with Piper becoming joint editor in 1960. New guides were published and some of the old pre-war guides were revised and updated, with one or two being published every year throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, a series of general titles under the Shell guide banner were produced, covering most of the countries in northwest Europe. Guides to subjects such as rivers, islands, viewpoints, archaeology, gardens, flowers, history, wildlife and museums were also published.

Thirty years after the first guide was published Betjeman rewrote it and the new edition of the Cornwall guide was published in 1964.  Mistakes were corrected, for example St. Ives was included in the gazetteer as it had been left out before.

In 1967 Betjeman quarrelled with the people at Shell over some rather derogatory remarks that were going to be included in the Northamptonshire guide, the remarks were removed and Betjeman resigned.  Since then, all the guides published after 1968 have the following disclaimer on the copyright page:

“Shell-Mex ad BP Limited is not responsible for any expressions of opinion by the author of this guide”.

John Piper continued as editor and the guides continued to be produced throughout the 1970s and into the mid-1980s.  Finally, in 1987 Shell issued a final series of ‘New Shell Guides’, published by Michael Joseph and generally covered larger areas for example Northern Scotland and the Islands.  

Whilst the original Shell County Guides are now highly collectable, the later titles, published by Faber and Faber, Ebury Press or Michael Joseph, are not as popular as supply exceeds demand.

Shell Guides - Later Editions
Shell Guides - Later Titles
 

The photograph above shows just some of the 19 copies we have for sale (at the time of writing) at Stella and Roses books, so if you are living in Devon, Herefordshire, Kent, Warwickshire, South-West Wales or even the West Coast of Scotland, we may have a guide for you.

Contributed by Lisa

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(Published on 15th Jan 2025)

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