A little man, the pockets of his shorts bulging with jam and banana sandwiches, a jersey tied round his middle and wearing a plastic mac cut down to jacket length, Alan Heaton did not look much like a record-breaking athlete as he stood surveying the hills around him in the mist and the rain.

A quiet, unassuming clerk with a Lancashire bus company by day, in 1960 Heaton ran over the summits of 42 hills and mountains in the Lake District in less than 24 hours — 66 miles, but also 8,200m (27,000ft) of ascent, including Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. He was attempting a feat that no one had managed since the Keswick hotelier Bob Graham did it in 1932, but Heaton