UP until a few year ago, the bosses of Thomas Cook used a lump of granite as a doorstop. Or at least, they thought it was a lump of granite – in fact it was a priceless 3,000-year-old Egyptian sculpture.

The sculpture had been given to the tour operator by Arab authorities who were thrilled with the overseas cash coming from Nile cruises run by the firm in the 1880s.

Needless to say it's not used as a doorstop any more – it takes pride of place in the company's mini-museum at its UK headquarters in Coningsby Road, Bretton, which has been opened to the public for the first time.

The company is dripping in history, as Thomas Cook more or less invented holidays as we know them.

Because although these days foreign holidays are a must for many people, and each year plenty of teenagers and twentysomethings head off for a gap year in far-flung part of the globe, travel on such a huge scale is a relatively new thing. About 150 years ago our ancestors would have been lucky if they'd had one trip to Northampton in their life.


Factfile:

• Thomas Cook was born on 22 November 1808.


• In 1977 Thomas Cook opened its new administrative headquarters at Thorpe Wood in Peterborough.


• More facts on the Thomas Cook website: www.thomascook.com/key-dates/.

That was up until a Victorian 32-year-old cabinet maker called Thomas Cook was walking from his home in Market Harborough to Leicester to go to a temperance meeting. The temperance movement aimed to reduce the amount of alcohol people drank.

A former Baptist preacher, Cook believed that most social problems were related to drink, and the lives of working people would be greatly improved if they drank less and became better educated.

As he walked along the road to Leicester, he later recalled, "the thought suddenly flashed across my mind as to the practicability of employing the great powers of railways and locomotion for the furtherance of social reform."

It was then, in 1841, that Cook set about starting his travel business. On July 5, 1841, he took 570 temperance campaigners from Leicester to Loughborough to attend a rally, a journey of about 11 miles, and charged people a shilling each.

Today, Thomas Cook, which has its UK headquarters in Bretton, sends more than six million people on holiday each year and is the country's second biggest travel firm.

The company is opening its archive up to the general public for the first time, and gives a fascinating insight into how society has changed in the past 200 years.

Included in the display is Britain's first brochure, which describes the sights on a 10-shilling trip from Leicester to Liverpool in 1845, colourful posters dating from the 19th century onwards, diaries from the first round-the-world package holiday, and old uniforms worn by travel reps.

Paul Smith is the company's full-time archivist, and said that many big businesses employed people to manage their archives. "I used to work for Barclays and Guinness," he said. "But I think this archive is particularly interesting to work with.

Continues on next page:
Page 3 - Highlights of the Cook collection.
The mystery of Miss Jemima