The Old Eldon Hostel

Wolfo

Member
Dickie said:
Torchy was the Eldon Hostel Warden in the 70's, when it was off the main drag in Buxton.  (Best-situated hostel in the country - over the top of a pub, next to a cafe and next to a late-night drinking hole!)

Was this the fine house with the bunk bed and a possibility to breed rabbits?


[gmod]Split from original Topic about Torchy in the obits section as requested.[.gmod][/gmod]
 

Fulk

Well-known member
"and accessed by an iron ladder."

I remember staying there one night when someone got pissed (just fancy that) and threw up all down the ladder, much to the consternation of those of us waiting at the bottom to go up; 'Never mind', said someone on the platform, 'I'll wash it off' ? and proceeded to do so by peeing down it.
 

Graigwen

Active member
A fine account of a night in the Eldon hut in 1967 is given by Mike Harris in "Born in a Perilous Pub" available online at https://www.abercavers.co.uk/thrutch/015/#h-04 - see the chapter headed "1967?69: The Sixties"


"The worst night I have ever spent either above or below ground or even at sea in a small boat, was on one club trip to Derbyshire. We spent one wintry night in the Eldon Club hut behind Woolworth's in Buxton. You know how old foam cushions go after a couple of weeks on a rubbish tip?after the odd dowsing with sump oil, sprout peelings and cat litter? Well such furnishings would have had many years of useful service still left when used as bedding on one of the two bunks that ran the length of the hut. But these were no ordinary bunks, for each provided multiple sleeping accommodation for members and non members, friends and passing individuals that arrived throughout the night. Some quite advanced thinking went into the cooking and heating facilities. Camping gas stoves were used for cooking and this was supplemented with a solid fuel stove which also provided waste heat for the central heating boiler. This was fitted with a header tank, fabricated from a 5 gallon oil can and mounted above the top bunk.

A feature was that the system would get hottest during the early hours of the morning and jet boiling water over the sleeping bodies below. I forget what we paid for this accommodation but I have a feeling that these facilities are no longer available.
"

It was just about the coldest I have ever been at night. I slept on top of a trestle table and others were envious. This followed on from arriving at the pub ten minutes before it closed after a trip down P8 in flood that ended up with three lights working in a party of eleven, mainly novices.


.
 

Fulk

Well-known member
'friends and passing individuals that arrived throughout the night'

Would they have been the rats you could hear scrabbling around?
 

scratch

New member
Yes the hostel was near a cafe where members could find School girls, and next to a late night 2/3 in the morning gambling den where we only went for the beer when you had the taste for one more. Torchy was one of the snuff group. The hostel was not near Woolworths  but behind the O2 shop on the other side of the road, yes the ladder was a railway signal ladder that could be pulled up when the police or others came. The bang could then be hidden in the pot bellied stove,  and the school girls handed back. you could do that in the 60's.
 

Dickie

Active member
Note to Moderators:
The Eldon Hostel could have volumes written about, so maybe think about splitting this thread off from the Obit section?
(My fault really!)
 

Mark Wright

Active member
I'm not quite old enough to remember the Eldon Hostel, though I've heard quite a lot about it.

Has anyone got any photographs they can post?

Mark
 

tony from suffolk

Well-known member
A group of us stayed there, just the one night...IIRC, you could look out from the bunks down onto the cooking area. In the morning there was a bloke boiling up a bucket of tripe, which smelled bloody awful, and he proceeded to scoff it for breakfast.
 

mikem

Well-known member
Previous thread on photos:
https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=18661.0

& more about the hostel in Gordon Parkin's obit:
https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=24246.0

Plus Clive Westlake interview comments:
https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=21608.0
 

T pot 2

Active member
I've stayed sthum since the news of Torchys passing, he was a great guy and I could recall many tales, memories and adventures etc that Torchys was part of.

I had the pleasure of living in the hostel for a good many years, in fact the others that resided there with myself were the last inhabitants. We were moved on - evicted if you like when the springs shopping centre was to be built on spring Gardens buxton.
Torchys was hostel warden and he would arrive at the hostel at around 16.30 on a Friday to collect the hut fees(50 p a night) he would every week find no-one there, everyone would have decamped to the pub, when he caught up with us promises to pay next week would be made.
I think I only ever payed my dues 3 times five years.
Torchys was as I said a great guy, an entrapanuer a dealer in things procured by himself.
Often he would turn up with meat in the cut of chops, stewing steak, bacon and black pudding after doing a deal with a buxton butcher, oatcakes at times also arrived as hostel warden he was lenient, as a benefactor he was a star.
Tales from within the hostel would fill a book, maybe I should write one.
T pot
 

AR

Well-known member
T pot 2 said:
Tales from within the hostel would fill a book, maybe I should write one.
T pot

Go for it T, there are so many stories need recording - I had a few from Dave Williams, and I still recall his comment that "an Eldon party was reckoned a flop if the police didn't turn up at some point"
 

Rob

Well-known member
It really is disgusting how far the club has slipped uphill in recent years.... I wonder if that level of disorder will ever be restored!  :blink:
 

Tommy

Active member
Rob said:
It really is disgusting how far the club has slipped uphill in recent years.... I wonder if that level of disorder will ever be restored!  :blink:

Kick those uni posh boys out first!
 

Dickie

Active member
Go for it T, there are so many stories need recording - I had a few from Dave Williams, and I still recall his comment that "an Eldon party was reckoned a flop if the police didn't turn up at some point"

I think the most successful Eldon Stomp was where we had 2 police cars, an ambulance and a dog van turn up! The good old days!
 

Dickie

Active member
The Rocket
there were a couple of Eldon blokes in the BAOR (ask your Dad) and there seemed to be a competition about who could smuggle the most outrageous thing into the country upon their return.
Anyway, one day a large, military-looking rocket turned up in the hostel. This thing was about 5 feet high, fortunately with no nosecone or warhead, about 9 inches diameter with 4 large plywood fins. Legend has it that it was a French ground to air missile but who knows, it might have been a mock-up. Me and Jeff Morgan (and possibly Bob Toogood) took it to the Stags one snowy night and put it on a table with a candle on top for Mick Durdey's birthday but the ungrateful git didn't want it, so we took it back.

I suggested we bury it nose-down in the police station lawn but that never got anywhere. After a while, we got bored with it and chopped the plywood fins off for the fire, then chucked the body into an industrial bin behind the shops.

Fun times!
 
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