While the British Government was concerned that trekking indicated that civilian morale was under strain, the practice was generally motivated by a desire to avoid the risk of death or injury and to be able to sleep.
Trekking involved civilians in cities which were threatened with air attack during the Blitz leaving their homes at night to sleep in nearby towns and rural areas.
[9] While the number of trekkers was large, the British official history notes that they were "small in comparison with the total of people made homeless by the attacks on provincial and Scottish cities during 1940-41".
[7] For instance, the Ministry of Information judged in April 1941 that trekkers formed part of segment of the population with "weaker mental-make up than the rest" and were "potentially neurotic".
By far the most important factor motivating trekking was a desire to sleep, with many civilians finding it was impossible to do so while awaiting a possible air attack or enduring a raid.
[15] Writing in 2002, the historian Robert Mackay noted that trekking was mainly undertaken as it allowed workers to retain their jobs and householders to supervise their semi-abandoned homes.
[16] In contrast, the historian Brian Barton judged in 1997 that the trekking from Belfast was linked to a collapse in morale in the city, as well as a fear of being killed or wounded.
[9] Recent research has supported the official history's conclusions, and found that trekking was a rational response by civilians to the conditions they faced.
[14] Due to its belief that trekking was a sign of falling morale, the British Government initially tried to discourage the large scale nightly movements from provincial cities during early 1941 by not providing any services to facilitate it, such as organising places for people to sleep.
Work on these facilities began the next month, but they proved unneeded as the large-scale German air raids on British cities had ended in May and were not resumed.