Hartington Youth Hostel In The 1960's

A Memory of Hartington.

In the 1960's Hartington Youth Hostel was a big modern and clean place to stay - yet strangely it was in a beautiful old stone building up the hill from the village. I remember my visit in summer 1967: I was on a hostelling holiday around the Peak District with my girlfriend Angela Chapuis and we stayed in several hostels and also walked along Dovedale. It wasnt quite the romantic break I might have hoped for as she brought her sister Barbara plus two friends called Sally and Maggie. If you chance to read this Angela where are you all now?

The hostel warden was a character who asked us to make a few passes with an ancient push lawn mower over the grass at the back of the hostel as our "duty". In those days hostel fees were kept low by all hostellers completing a hostel duty in the morning. No duty meant you didn't get your membership card back! Other memories of Hartington Youth Hostel are the gate posts with stone balls on the pillars. Oh the temptation to lift them off and roll them down the hill to the village.

One problem in the hostel was low water pressure - very low! It was so bad that the only place with anything more than a trickle of water was a bath in the mens' washroom. Happy days!

I am unable to locate the hostel now so I wonder if the YHA has closed the old hostel and opened a replacement smaller building in the village.

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