[Email sent from: Rowan Langley,CTC Life member, Trustee Pardshaw Quaker Centre]...
Stephen Webb of the Tandem Club Lancashire and Cumbria section passed me the details of the Kendal and District Cycle Scene as a club which may be interested in the bunkhouse facility near Cockermouth for trips away.
I am a CTC / Cycling UK life member , cycle camper and hosteller and a trustee of an organisation which operates a very simple bunkhouse /camping barn in the hamlet of Pardshaw Hall, four miles south of Cockermouth.
I have seen cyclists becoming increasingly less well served by the YHA and independent hostels as more and more of the simple rural hostels switch to a "Hire the whole hostel for a mimimum of two night at £250 per night and upwards basis", excluding the individual cyclist and making club weekends away less viable.
Our bunkhouse, in a historic Quaker meeting house from 1729, does not operate such an exclusionary policy. We take bookings from individuals and groups.
In 1932 one of the first Youth Hostel was established in part of the site, lasting until the outbreak of the second world war, and s hostel continued independent of the YHA until around 2007. A second bunkhouse was established within the meeting house around 1970 by young adult members of the Quakers, who undertook repairs and improvements and managed this facility until 2008. After 2008 it was managed by the local Quakers until 2021 when the present Pardshaw Quaker Centre Charity was established.
Our accommodation is simple, needing sleeping bags, but we provide a stock of fifteen light mattresses. We offer a kitchen, shower, two WCs ( one accessible and en suite with a two to three person room in the former schoolroom where the scientist John Dalton taught aged 12) and secure covered cycle storage.
Our registered charity Pardshaw Quaker Centre (registration 1193476) leases the buildings and manages and develops them, and our related organisation Friends of Pardshaw Quaker Centre exists to promote the facilities and encourage greater usage.
The main area has just had a new wood burning stove fitted and is available all year round. I think it has plenty of potential for winter club weekends away keeping up fitness ready for the next season.
We are completing a smaller area which can be a self contained area with kitchenette and WC can sleep between three and four or a family and is wheelchair accessible.
We charge per person on the basis of between £5 and £15 per adult per night, £5 per night under 18. We operate on a trust basis - we trust guests to know their individual finances and situation and pay a figure appropriate to their means.
Group bookings up to fifteen are quite feasible , between fifteen and twenty also on the understanding that some guests would need to bring sleeping mats, camp beds or whatever.
The centre runs entirely on donated time from its trustees and members of the Friends of Pardshaw Quaker Centre, and so we rely on guests and groups taking care and doing a good tidy after their stay to help keep the place ready for the next booking, in fact Just like a Proper youth hostel
To help things run smoothly we have taken a lead from the YHA in former years and ask, for individual bookings, people to join the Friends of Pardshaw Quaker Centre ( £10 per calendar year). It means we can re-assure the local key holder people asking for the keys are not complete strangers.
Our address : Pardshaw Quaker Centre, Quaker Meeting House, Pardshaw Hall,
Near Cockermouth, Cumbria. CA13 0SP,
Our website : www.pardshawquakercentre.org.uk
get in contact with us at info@pardshawquakercente.org.uk
With best wishes for the road
Rowan Langley,CTC Life member
Trustee Pardshaw Quaker Centre
