youth hostels, the history, people and ideas behind them
The youth hostel at Malham is a lasting testament to one man and the history of his wider family’s long association with youth hostels. John Dower, a local architect, designed the hostel in 1937. He also designed the youth hostels at Eskdale in Cumbria and at Bellingham in Northumberland. He achieved a wider reputation when... Continue Reading →
Two cyclists and a bluebird from the YHA (England and Wales) handbook of 1942. Isabel Bacheler Smith designed them for the American youth hostel’s magazine The Knapsack. She founded the youth hostels association of the USA with her husband Monroe. In the summer of 1933 Isabel and Monroe Smith toured Germany with a group of Boy... Continue Reading →
I've long been interested in the influence Quakers had on youth hostels. Quakers gave youth hostels an ethos of simplicity and companionship that endured for years and, more tangibly, they ran regions and brought many properties to the infant YHA. In his memoirs Charles Allen, first regional secretary in Devon and Cornwall, wrote that it... Continue Reading →
The YHA Archive has recently acquired a very special item – a spiral bound typewritten personal memoir of Charles Allen, one of the pioneer organisers of the YHA in Devon and Cornwall from the 1930s to the 1960s. John Martin, YHA's Honorary Archivist, writes that it dates from the late 1970s. Charles Allen, was... Continue Reading →
May was an exciting and productive month for John Martin, YHA's honorary archivist. John writes about YHA's archive and its latest acquisitions and boxes and boxes of old records from the Lake District in this report. He came back from a recent trip to the Lake District laden with old files of fascinating material and... Continue Reading →
