Scenic refreshment ~ Walking and Youth Hostelling
Blake Lee | Around Pule Hill | Up Wessenden | Youth Hostels
Marsden has been perceived through Romantic eyes as a place of wild beauty since at least the beginning of the 19th century. Nearer the end of the century, improved transport links, together with increased prosperity and leisure, made Marsden a popular venue for day-trips from both Yorkshire and Lancashire towns.
Lovely scenery refreshed the souls of those coming from cramped, polluted mills and streets, but bodily refreshment was also sought, in the form of meat teas or a glass of beer; Marsden inn-keepers and land-owners, some of whom were also farmers, made the most of this commercial opportunity.
One popular walk from the village centre was along Tunnel End reservoir to Eastergate and Blake Lee Guest-House near Hay Green; a more testing walk was up Pule Hill to The Moorcock or The Great Western; while the most strenuous route led up the Wessenden Valley, where refreshment could be found at Wessenden Lodge and the Isle of Skye Inn.
In the twentieth century motoring excursions, cycling and hostelling became popular, and Marsden adapted to these new forms of leisure.
Blake Lee
Blake Lee was referred to in 1881 as "the new visiting place, nestling under the shadow of the Marsden hills, which beats Mentone for healthiness, Blackpool for life, Scarborough for gaiety, and the Fairy Glen for river and sylvan beauty".
It was kept at that time by John Hirst (Cloth Dealer and Pleasure House Proprietor), his wife Sarah, and his daughters Mary and Amy (Proprietresses). The Hirsts belonged to the Temperance League, and seem to have enjoyed entertaining such figures as the Mayor and Mayoress of Huddersfield, whose visit was reported in the local press.
In 1905 Yorkshire County cricketers George Herbert Hirst, Schofield Haigh, and Wilfred Rhodes - "The Huddersfield Triumvirate" - were entertained at Blake Lee, and a postcard was produced of the occasion.
On one Saturday in July 1881, 400 people visited Blake Lee, 197 of whom were served a "knife and fork tea", presumably in shifts. The visitors included a Huddersfield Adult Class, Waterhead Young Men’s Class, the choir of St. Mary’s, Oldham, and Wellhouse Band of Hope who came by a specially chartered canal barge.
Around Pule Hill
A harder route took visitors up Pule Hill, where they could visit the Moorcock Inn or one of the inns on the Third Turnpike (now the A62). A notebook kept at the Great Western Inn, by Sarah Ann Wood, records the purchase of a huge quantity of hams. It also shows that in August 1878 a Mr Bayley paid £2 - 14 shillings for 3 dozen each of soda water, potassium water and Bass Ale – this could have been for a walking or shooting party, as the Inn also provided beds for four people at the start of the shooting season on August 11th.
In August 1875 a man called William Barker was "much injured on the Marsden Moors last night" – whether in a shooting or walking accident is unknown – and was in bed at the Great Western. The draft of his telegram is contained in Sarah Ann Wood’s notebook.
On 22nd August 1863 a train bearing the Huddersfield Mechanics Institution arrived at Marsden at 2 p.m. "accompanied by a band of music". The group "then marched to the mountains, a distance of two miles" but were rained on heavily en route. "Those who arrived at Standedge sought refuge in the Great Western, or crouched behind walls." After that, the weather improved, and the party rambled on the moors, gathered bilberries, joined in out-door sports, "or went through the 'deep cutting' to get peeps of new scenery on the other side of the backbone of the mountain." About 7 pm they set off to return to Marsden.
Up Wessenden
The most adventurous walking route was up the Wessenden Valley. In the 1886 Rates Survey the Halls, farmers of Binn Lodge, were recorded as having a "Refreshment Room". Within living memory teas - "rich repasts" - were served from Wessenden Lodge. George Marsden was probably referring to Wessenden Lodge when he wrote the following advertisement:
Hester’s Retreat
Wessenden Valley
Marsden Near Huddersfield
This magnificent beauty spot in Wessenden Valley is within 1½ miles from Marsden Station, and contains 2 reservoirs, constructed for the Huddersfield corporation waterworks, at a cost of nearly half a million of money, and at one glance can be seen scenery second to none in the north of England.
- There are mountain and moorland, rivulet and lake,
- Health giving breezes, Fernbank and Brake,
- Bracken and heather, shrubbery and tree,
- Good road to get there, these are all free
- If age or youth, on wheel or foot
- Their progress can but stay,
- With fresh laid eggs and lemonade,
- A trifling sum to pay,
- Or; if by hunger being stormed,
- And cash is in thy till,
- A sandwich try, but pay the score
- Then thou may eat thy fill
- Recruit thy inward wasting frame,
- From nature’s bounteous store,
- But; when refreshed, trudge on again,
- What mortal can ask more?
- There is also 6 acre of splendid woodland, where children can roam at their leisure, on payment of a small sum, and a garrantee [sic] not to interfere with the trees, nor do mischief of any kind (this will be strictly enforced). Parties can be catered for at the farm, but these must be arranged for at least 4 days prior and a deposit paid; particulars of which may be had at
Hester’s Retreat
- Lengthened periods can be arranged for.
- Sweets, biscuits and confectionery of various kinds etc. etc. etc.
Those braving the stiff climb out of the end of the Wessenden valley sought refreshment at the Isle of Skye Hotel.
Youth Hostels
The first Marsden Youth Hostel was at Hopwood Farm; it opened in September 1932 as an "adopted hostel" (i.e. not owned by the YHA) with a resident warden. Structural alterations and extensions were made in 1934, and in 1936 a local committee, independent of the YHA, built a common room for the use of YHA members at the hostel. According to a sign on the side of the hostel, it also served teas, presumably for walkers. The hostel closed in 1940 (or possibly 1939), re-opened in Whitsun 1943 under Mr and Mrs Shaw, and closed in 1944, with the warden Mr. Gibson due to move to Ellingstring YH, near Ripon. The War years were very hard for YHA with severe restrictions on travel and requisition of buildings restricting the organisation's ability to operate, and this may have been at least a contributory factor in the Hostel's demise.
The second YHA hostel was at Hades Farm, which opened in June 1969. The official opening was May 17th 1970, as the focus of a "Pennine mini-marathon". 40-plus people coming from Mankinholes (15 miles away) and Crowden (10 miles away) by foot or "cyclo-cross" were expected to converge on the hostel for the ceremony at 4.30 p.m., followed by tea, soup, and hot dogs. The owner-Wardens were Mr Fred and Mrs Pamela Jones of neighbouring New Hey Farm, whose son Michael provided the services of a guide across the Moors "for the uninitiated". The hostel had electric light and cooking, geyser hot water, and "a broad farmhouse hearth which warms and cheers beside a round-bellied, ancient iron cooking pot in the snug common room". Farmhouse meals were provided for those who did not wish to cook. Despite the facts that between 600 and 1000 bed-nights were notched up in the first year, the hostel closed in 1972 at the end of the season.
The third Marsden Youth Hostel was at The Old Co-op, 1 Binn Road, the converted shop of the Marsden Equitable Industrial Society. It opened on 1st July 1975 after a long delay, with an official opening on 13th September 1975. It closed on 1st October 1983.
[ Youth Hostel photograph and information supplied by YHA Archivist John Martin - (01751 431572)]
Hazel Seidel July 2007