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Youth Hostel

A Memory of Goudhurst.

I stayed here when it was a Youth Hostel. We had to sleep on the floor in a gallery with a large tapestry. One of our group swore that they saw a ghost during the night. I remember that there was a Priest Hole accessed through a cupboard in the corner of one of the upper rooms. The kitchen still had a lot of the original hooks and fittings. One of these was said to be where people were tied to be flogged.

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Added 21 February 2014

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I remember this Youth Hostel from the early nineteen sixties when my friend Dave Brabham and I cycled from Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, via the Tilbury ferry, to Hastings We were only about 13. You could do that back then without your parents being put on some sort of register. Happy, analogue, days...

By Martin Wolff on Sat Mar 4th 2023, at 11:56 am

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Looking back difficult to believe that at 14 or 15 cycled all over Cornwall, IOW with a mate. Main thing was the low level of car traffic.... It would be impossible now.

By paulatepc66 on Wed Jul 12th 2023, at 7:32 pm

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Recently I stumbled across on eBay a postcard that mentioned a Manor near Goudhurst that used to be a Youth Hostel back in the 1960s.
I Stayed in this old house/manor back in September 1965 to early October 1965 with a mixed group (girls/guys) of Aussies, New Zealanders, Canadians, and I think the odd Irish persons as we were all employed to work on one of the local Hop Farms.
Before this all I could remember that the place we stayed in back in 1965 was an incredibly old house with a narrow staircase (which I had to duck my head to go up) which led up to the bedrooms. A community kitchen was downstairs and a lounge nearby.
I can also remember it was a long walk on the weekends from the house to the pub in Goudhurst and the name always stuck with me “Star and Eagle” but getting back was a bit of a stumble and fun when there was a mixed crowd of us.
After a day’s Hop Pulling it was great to get back and crash out or chin wag with fellow travellers.
I got the cushy job of driving the tractor.
Good memories of good days free of hassles and authority

By Peter Kitchingman on Sat Mar 22nd 2025, at 6:03 am

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