Youth Hostel Profiles are descriptive historical studies of individual hostels or groups of them.
They have been made available to this website by special arrangement with the author, John Martin, YHA’s volunteer archivist and with permission from YHA.
They are snapshots at a point in time, rather than definitive histories, and are designed to be adaptable and revisable in the light of YHA’s ever-expanding Archive resources and new material. Corrections and additional information relating to Profiles are always welcome.
The Profiles are strictly for personal study only and are the copyright of John Martin, YHA’s volunteer archivist. They must not be republished, transmitted or distributed.
Further information about the body of work can be obtained from the author johnmartin@yha.org.uk. John’s work is free of charge; any donation to help YHA’s charitable objectives and funding is of course welcome – and (equally of course) entirely voluntary: see the YHA website for details https://getinvolved.yha.org.uk/donate/
The list of completed Profiles now runs to more than 150, covering over 300 YHA England and Wales hostels. They are in reduced-resolution pdf format designed for viewing online. More are planned.
Profiles are listed on this site by regions made up of the historic counties of England and Wales. Our chosen method groups the historic counties into larger areas of England and Wales. It attempts a balance between current government regions and the many different regions used by YHA since 1930. Over time more regions will be listed with their hostels.
Completed files are stored at the YHA Archive, Special Collections, Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham, an open resource where usually all may visit and study, though the facility is unavailable at the moment. Each profile is available to view there both as a hard copy print-out and as a high-resolution pdf file.
The Profiles on this site are a small selection and more will be added as these pages develop.
SIMPLY HOSTELS 