Decade heralded brave new age

T HE 1950s was a decade of huge optimism in Britain. The country was beginning to recover from the desperate years of the Second World War and the accession of the young Queen Elizabeth in 1952 greatly strengthened the feeling that we were entering a brave new age.

Leek shared this uplifting mood and with industry working at full strength people were beginning to find money for leisure pastimes.

There were many clubs and organisations providing outlets for people's talents and energy. Two of the most vigorous were Leek Cyclists Club and Leek branch of the Youth Hostels Association. Each in its own way provided an attractive means for people to enjoy the countryside.

The Cyclists Club is still going strong after 134 years but I'm not sure where the YHA stands today. In my time you had to get to a hostel under your own steam - ie, on foot or bike or even I dare say by canoe if you were so minded. Today you can drive.

Leek YHA was a hard-working group who did more than just walk or cycle for a weekend out. The members did much to keep local hostels going, particularly at Sharpcliffe Hall, Ipstones, and Dimmingsdale, near Alton.

They had more success with Dimmingsdale than Sharpcliffe. In 1950 the Leek members gave almost all their group's funds to an appeal to buy "Dim", as it was fondly known, for the YHA. The amount they gave was £25, which doesn't sound much today but it was a large sum 60 years ago. To put it into perspective, other Staffordshire groups with five times as many members as Leek contributed £60 each.

This money plus donations from many other branches helped the YHA to secure the hostel. But the effort didn't stop there. Members regularly joined working parties to do essential repairs and construction at Dimmingsdale and Sharpcliffe. In the end the problems of maintaining Sharpcliffe and supplying it with enough water for large numbers of visitors were too much for volunteers.

Among the leading lights in the Leek YHA were Bob Moss, Collis Frith, Basil Robey, Harold Bode and Bernard Mansfield. I believe Bob emigrated to Canada.

Like the YHA, Leek Cyclists Club enjoyed weekly social meetings as well as weekend outings. Many people were members of the two organisations, Harold Bode being a hard worker for both.

In 1950 the cyclists got the use of a room at the Central Liberal Club for their mid-week gatherings. Appropriately the first meeting was opened by one of the club's oldest members, Mr T Bestwick, then aged 70. He was born in 1880 but as a young man he would have known many of the people who had founded the club in 1876, and he recalled the days when cyclists wore tweed uniforms and rode penny-farthing bikes.

I don't know whether they were related but another pioneer cyclist was also named Bestwick. This was Miss Annie Bestwick, who was Leek's first lady cyclist. She celebrated her 90th birthday in 1950.

She had been a gymnastics and swimming instructor and had continued cycling until she was 76. She was one of the last two members of the family of George Bestwick, a silk manufacturer, who had 13 children.