In 1936 when Hilary Hughes and her friend Margaret set out from their homes near Portsmouth, they lived in times with many concerns the same as ours.
Popular then
We long for better food. We want to be healthy and fit. We declutter our lives and long for Scandinavian simplicity in lifestyle and furniture. Nature writing has many readers. These matters were popular in the 1930s.
Agriculture was in disarray, its subsidies being cut and land being abandoned. The organic farming movement was beginning.
Vegetarianism was a vogue. Some desired a return to simple, uncluttered living. Recipes for local and regional foods were being gathered.
Folk music and singing were enjoying a renaissance. Nature was in fashion, from healthy outdoor hiking to sun worshipping and nudism.
Outdoor swimming was an established part of Britain with local councils building outdoor pools. People longed for the outdoors and fresh air.
They hankered for a rural past, and a traditional way of life, fed by the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement.
The 1930s was divided between town and country, much as it is today. People in the countryside feared swarms of visitors, just as residents of rural areas do today.
Loathsome tourists
Tourists were regarded with disdain even in 1930. One writer despaired of “girls in cycling knickers, young men with hairy legs dressed as Boy Scouts, thin young men with spectacles and open-necked shirts, who carry enormous rucksacks…” crowding the narrow lanes of Clovelly in Devon.
Tourists were loathed even then. They brought inappropriate developments, like tea rooms and filling stations, in their wake. They fed a desire to protect nature and the countryside, especially through national parks.
Nature was seen as an inherent good, to be protected against development like roads, mining, hydro electric schemes, and factories.
Travel and tourism was an exclusive business, an adult and middle class pursuit in the 1930s. Many were excluded by cost, and by prejudice from hotels that wouldn’t accept them, and which they couldn’t afford.
Friends on repeat
If things were very similar then to now, maybe we can learn something. Maybe we can find how they solved problems then.
That’s what I want to write about. That’s the kind of hope I want to find. Other people have come across our problems before and have solved them too.
The problems we face are not unique. In researching youth hostels and their history I’ve realised that they faced many of the same problems we face today.
And if other people have faced the same problems, and found ways to solve them, we can learn from them. Maybe the way youth hostels evolved in their green roots can show us some of the answers we want for tourism today.
Otherwise, history will be a repeat show. Sitcoms like Friends, Frasier, or Cheers were exciting when they were new. After 236 episodes even Friends began to feel stale.
We’re living in a sitcom on repeat, unless we find a pause button, unless we write a new series.