Britain's Youth Hostels Association turns 90

Once a place for young people who couldn't afford big holidays, the Youth Hostels Association has become a bit of a British institution.

Often based in the heart of the countryside, the charity's hostels, cabins and campsites have given visitors with challenging lives the chance to experience adventure and build new skills.

Now, as the organisation celebrates its 90th anniversary in Britain, its vision is still to "reach out and enhance the lives of young people" but it has bigger challenges of modernising, diversifying and appealing to everyone.

The YHA is celebrating 90 years since it opened its first hostel in Britain

The Youth Hostels Association opened in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1930, under the ethos to get young people outdoors.

Most of its customers were aged under 26 and visiting with schools or youth groups and many of them were taking their first summer holidays without their parents.

There are now 151 sites around England and Wales, with the charity's headquarters in Matlock, Derbyshire.

The YHA is designed to get young people out into the countryside

The organisation said it had been forced to change to fit modern standards and lifestyles

"We were coming from a time when it was very difficult for young people, particularly those who were not wealthy, to get out into the countryside," said Duncan Simpson, hostel historian and a YHA warden for 25 years.

"The ambition of youth hostelling was to enable everybody to get out into the countryside at a low price.

"It didn't matter where you stayed, for how long, or how old you were, you paid a shilling a night."

Many of the YHA's hostels are based in the heart of the countryside

The charity now has 151 sites around England and Wales

The charity struggled for survival in 2001 during the foot-and-mouth outbreak, which saw some hostels inaccessible because of areas being closed off, and people avoiding the countryside altogether.

Chief executive James Blake said 20% of bookings were cancelled and 10 hostels were forced to shut because of the business they lost.

"That was a real shock to us as an organisation," he said.

"We had to think about who we were and where we were going. It really helped us to think about the future and really modernise what we were doing."

At the time YHA was accused of "selling off the family silver" but the charity said without this action, it would not have survived.

The hostels often organise workshops and events to get visitors outdoors

Hostels were designed to be inexpensive and now cater to people of all ages

Since then the organisation has spent hundreds of millions in renovating its hostels and building new ones, many of which now include modern luxuries such as private en-suite rooms, licensed bars and cafes.

To mark its 90th birthday the YHA has launched Project90 to take 90 young people from each of its England and Wales regions to try outdoor activities like kayaking, abseiling and hiking.

See more on BBC Inside Out East Midlands, on BBC One, Monday 17 February at 19:30 BST, or afterwards on iPlayer.