A Hostel A Week

C is for Coniston.

“back in 1932 facilities were ‘fairly basic’. For some time there was no electricity and we had our own private water supply.”

The coppermines on the eastern flanks of Coniston Old Man, one or two miles from Coniston village, have been worked for at least three centuries. By Victorian times the workings here were very extensive, creating an industrial landscape hemmed in by the grandest of Lakeland scenery.

The mines were in decline from the mid-19th century, however, and very little was worked from about 1920. The squat building that later became the youth hostel was the original home and office, of uncertain date, of the mine manager.

The cottage is built of local materials, predominantly slate, and with a slate roof. The walls are thick. The building is of two storeys, though apparently of one when viewed from the front.

Slate has been used to provide a fireplace in the original living room or office (later the hostel common room) that is unusually positioned on the first floor, reflecting the difference of height between the old entrance door at the front, leading onto the first floor, and the newer entrance at the back, at the lower level.

Now read on for a full profile of this lovely hostel…