“on the approaches to Helvellyn, and variously described as a former lead-mine manager’s house or lead-miners’ hostel. Debris from the old mines lay all around.”
In the immediate post-war period youth hostels throughout the country were fully stretched because of a surge of interest in hostelling and holidaymaking, and nowhere more so than in the Lake District.
Most hostels were old buildings creaking at the seams for all the reasons associated with war and its aftermath – shortages of maintenance, construction materials, curbs on building licences and the employment of skilled tradesmen engaged in more pressing national needs – it took an enormous leap of faith by YHA…
Read more about YHA Helvellyn in John Martin’s historic profile of the hostel here.
SIMPLY HOSTELS 
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