youth hostels, the history, people and ideas behind them
Continuing the story of Hilary Hughes, based on the log book of her cycle tour in the South of England in August 1936, a fascinating glimpse into the lives of two young women in 1936, when they were alone in the world, unaided, for a week. Breakfast was nothing, Hilary declared to her diary; a... Continue Reading →
The Gummersons, far left, a married couple who ran early youth hostels, here at Stainforth. In the years around 1950 youth hostels changed. Little shows the change as dramatically as the employment of women in youth hostels. In the years before the second world war, many women had run youth hostels on their own. By... Continue Reading →
Women, history and hostels #7 Gwen Moffat wrote about a time after war, when, with “peace declared, all the excitement was over, and now there was only the bewildering prospect of demobilisation and beyond that… nothing.” Except she found excitement in climbing, in the beauty of the hills, “swimming in winter pools with snow crusting... Continue Reading →
A short history of Tanners Hatch Volunteers, two thirds of them women, built a hostel from a ruined cottage in the middle of the second world war. Tanners Hatch is a hostel with one of the proudest histories of any of YHA's, its location one to of YHA's best and it owes its origins to... Continue Reading →
Women, history and hostels #6 Mary Lander was one of the few women at two meetings which established youth hostels in Britain and Europe, and played a central part in the revival of youth hostels during the second world war. She was one of eight, among 28 men, at the first meeting of a youth... Continue Reading →
SIMPLY HOSTELS 