It almost seemed silly how easily it began. Someone took a photograph. The pair mounted their cycles, and pedalled off. Not far up the unpaved road, they dismounted and walked to the top of the hill where they paused, and waved. Then, for anyone watching, they disappeared, alone, and unaided. Hilary Hughes and Margaret Taylor... 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 →

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 →