White Hall Centre for Open Country Pursuits, near Buxton in Derbyshire, was set up in 1950 by Jack Longland, Derbyshire’s director of education. By 1970, Longland had observed ‘an astonishing drift of the whole range of subjects which we call physical education towards outdoor pursuits, towards mountains and moors and rivers, lakes and the sea’. In successfully achieving Longland’s local aims and in significantly influencing national developments, White Hall Centre helped to widen the meaning of education, and particularly of physical education. The Story of White Hall Centre describes White Hall’s origins and its sixty-seven years in existence.

Written and published by Pete McDonald, 2018.
768 pages (156mm x 234mm).
285 photographs and drawings, 36 tables and diagrams.

ISBN 9780473425272, hardback, list price £49.
ISBN 9780473428884, E-book (EPUB), list price £9.99.
ISBN 9780473428853, E-book (MOBI), list price £9.99.
ISBN 9780473428860, PDF, list price £9.99

UK customers can order the hardback directly through me at a price of £28, which includes delivery to a UK address. Contact me by email: pete.mcdnz@outlook.com

Reviews

“The book is an exemplar of thorough research conducted with forensic accuracy and an ability to bring history to life … All history is partial and there are always different narratives and perspectives to evolve but it is hard to imagine a more thorough and skilfully crafted work than this.”

Pete Allison, The Kurt Hahn Consortium for Values and Experiential Learning, The Pennsylvania State University.

“I worked all my professional life in outdoor education, covering over half of White Hall’s 70 years of existence and becoming acquainted with many of the characters mentioned in the book, but I now realise how much I didn’t know, the books I should have read, and the questions I should have asked to properly understand the underpinnings of my own outdoor values.”

Tim Jepson, Senior Lecturer in Outdoor Education, Bangor University (Retired 2013).

“… an outstanding, really excellent example of its kind, a model for others”

Catherine Moorehead, writer and editor.