Lion House Youth Hostel 1957

A Memory of Mitcheldean.

I stayed one night at this hostel in early April 1957. A friend and I had set out from our home town of Reading on a 5 night circular cycle trip - our first such trip. Mitcheldean was our second night's stop, the first being at the then Inglesham hostel north of Swindon. We then went on to hostels at Clifton-on-Teme near Worcester, Broome, Warwickshire and Charlbury, Oxfordshire before returning to Reading. We were only 14 at the time. I can remember little of the hostel at Mitcheldean but the pictures on this site strike a chord. I remember the yard and in the part of the building where we slept the two-tier bunk beds and the sheet sleeping bags we had to take to go between the blankets that were provided - the standard deal at the time. At the time of writing I have just revisited Mitcheldean for the first time since 1957. I could not recall the exact location of the hostel and near the church I asked a local lady a little older than me and she pointed me to the houses opposite the clinic which now occupy the site. As cyclists the hills of the area made a big impression on us at the time. I very much enjoyed revisiting this lovely area, this time in my car!