youth hostels, the history, people and ideas behind them
YHA’s archive recently received the kind donation of a rare membership card from 1931 along with valuable information about an early youth hostel in Devon. The Plymouth and District Regional group issued its card no 5 to Blyth Palk, one of 78 who joined YHA in 1931 in that region. Palk went on to marry... Continue Reading →
“Hordes of hikers … people, wherever there is water, upon sea shores or upon river banks … stinking disorderly dumps of tins, bags and cartons bear witness to the tide of invasion…” Sounds familiar, the kind of complaint made about the visitors invading the countryside and coast today, demonstrating how unsustainable our ways of travel... Continue Reading →
In 1932 YHA aimed to make touring affordable by creating circuits and chains of hostels especially for young people like Hilary Hughes and her friend Margaret who toured through Hampshire and the New Forest that year. [1] They were part of a fashion for travel, to discover Britain, which arose after the first world war.... Continue Reading →
Barclay Baron, first chairman of the Youth Hostels Association (YHA), in his later years recalled that YHA could not have chosen a more difficult time to start than 1930. His reflection of the beginning of youth hostels seems reasonable. We have an impression of the years that followed, up to the second world war, as... Continue Reading →
The original idea of youth hostels had been for small groups in big cities to open chains of youth hostels stretching into the countryside. A group based in Oxford took that further by opening a hostel in its own urban base, reshaping the idea and origins of hostels. YHA’s first handbook in 1931 showed towns... Continue Reading →
SIMPLY HOSTELS 