Buttermere Youth Hostel: Andy Follis 1958 – 2005

Looking over Crummock Water from Rannerdale Knotts

Buttermere Youth Hostel is a special place for me as I worked a summer season there in the 1990s.  One of my favourite memories of those months is the short period between finishing serving breakfast and the two hours of cleaning duties once the hostel was empty.  We would often take this much needed short break on the benches lined up on the open porch at the front of the hostel.  Here, with a view of the surrounding fells, we would chat with the hostellers as they kitted up for a walk or packed their cars, while having a welcome mug of tea and a piece of homemade cake.

In memory of Andy Follis 1958 – 2005

Returning to Buttermere for a stay this summer I was interested to find a memorial bench to Andy Follis on the porch.  Andy Follis was only 46 years old when he died suddenly from epilepsy in April 2005 leaving a wife and two daughters.

The bench under the porch at Buttermere Youth Hostel

Andy Follis must have also had a connection with Buttermere Youth Hostel and certainly the bench that remembers him is welcomed by hostellers and members of staff.

Haworth: Derek Ernest Foster 5th June 1931 – 3rd August 2012

If you walk away from the central bustle of the lovely West Yorkshire village of Haworth and follow the road out of the village that heads off up to the moors, turn left off the main road and you find yourself on Cemetery Road.  Walking along this road you get a fantastic view over the Worth Valley.  Walk beyond the Cemetery [after exploring] and you are looking over Lower Laithe Reservoir to the village of Stanbury on its ridge.  Here in this lovely spot I found the memorial bench to Derek Ernest Foster.

Derek Ernest Foster died peacefully at home at the age of 81-years, leaving his wife Mary and father of five children.  The memorial bench to remember Derek Ernest Foster suggests a family man who was very much loved and had a good sense of humour and also enjoyed the beauty of the landscape around Haworth.  This bench, dedicated in loving memory by his family, gives passers by a glimpse of the sort of man Derek Ernest Foster was and I appreciate the family’s generosity in sharing their memories.

In Loving Memory of Derek Ernest Foster. A sincere and dear Husband, Father & Grandfather who regularly appreciated the surrounding natural beauty from this location, flippantly quoting “which Architect designed all this”. Infinitely loved and Eternally missed. 5th June 1931 – 3rd August 2012