To coincide with my partner, Catherine, and I being featured in the latest HF Holiday Magazine (read online here pages 22-23) I’m going to use this newsletter to tell you what that is all about.
I regularly mention HF Holidays in my Performance Dates and, whether you are British or visiting from overseas, one of these enjoyable musical breaks could be something you might want to build into a future holiday.
To help me with this I have enlisted two happy customers, Sue and Chris, to talk about their HF experiences.
Like most people, I had never heard of HF Holidays. HF is short for Holiday Fellowship. This was an organisation set up in 1913 by an innovative pastor called Thomas Arthur Leonard who wanted to offer working-class Brits. walking holidays in the country as a healthy alternative to the seaside holidays so very popular at the time.
My own involvement began in the period coming out of the covid-19 pandemic. I was asked to teach a weekend ukulele holiday to 14 people in Abingworth, West Sussex. I drove to a beautiful old country house where I faced a group of masked ukulele students all spaced 2 metres apart. At mealtimes however the masks came off and I really got to enjoy the company of the people I was with.
I was fascinated by the HF set-up. I’ve since discovered that most HF houses tend to be large and old-time-quirky with big wooden doors leading to corridors and rooms. These houses are run like hotels, but also not, as I’ll describe later. In the last century the HF organisation has acquired properties in some of the most scenic places of Britain. They provide comfort plus easy access to open countryside.
Sue says, “I first stayed at an HF hotel when my sister invited me to join a walking holiday when she worked as a cleaner, cook and walks leader at the Isle of Wight house in the late seventies.
After finding out more about the HF ethos, I invested in the co-operative and became a member.
As an aspiring artist the leisure holidays were of interest and I attended a number of these – Starting Drawing, Watercolour and Walking with a sketchbook.”
The socialness of the HF experience creates a vibe that reminds me of the youth hostels I stayed in as a boy and young man (no surprise then that Thomas Arthur Leonard also helped create the Youth Hostels Association in the 1930s). Guests have their own rooms but meals are taken together at round tables making these vacations ideal for anyone holidaying alone.
Quite a few guests tell me that they first came to HF on holiday with their parents. The food is excellent. You get to pick your starter, main and dessert choices (including special dietary requitements) from a daily list.
The music holidays that Catherine and I lead are in a category called Special Interest to distinguish them from the walking holidays. We are asked to say “lead” and not “teach” since the primary focus is towards enjoyment rather than learning. There is open time in the afternoons for people to do their own thing. This could be music practice but is more likely to be walking, relaxing or driving off to visit the nooks and corners of a nearby town.
Chris is a retired teacher. He says, “My first HF holiday was at Newfield Hall at a musical gathering led by Ralph and Catherine, where amateurs took along their ukes and other instruments wondering what the event would be like. We were encouraged to play along together as a whole and in small groups, which was great fun.
There was time in the afternoons to go off and walk some of the beautiful countryside around Malham.
On the final evening, we gave an informal concert to the hotel guests after dinner. I found myself playing, alongside Ralph, a George Formby song taught to me by my father when I was a young boy – Leaning on a Lamp Post. The whole event was so enjoyable.”
Although I started with HF by leading ukulele holidays these have become expanded to be more Folk Jam holidays which can accommodate guests with other musical instruments. It seems everyone has their own definition of what “folk music” means. For some it is sea shanties at the same time that others imagine 1960s singalongs à la Joni Mitchell and John Denver and still others expect endless folk tunes from the British Isles.
We try to accommodate everyone as much as possible by covering everything from Joan Baez and Bob Dylan to the blues. We expect someone at some point to mutter, “This isn’t folk!” But we don’t mind that, in fact we welcome the discussion of, “What is folk music anyway?” The main point for us is that everyone can enjoy working together on a variety of songs and tunes on whatever instruments are brought along.
We get clarinets, recorders, tin whistles, concertinas, accordions, U-basses, guitars, ukes, violins and even a harp. Anything goes! A couple of weeks before the holiday we receive a list of the guest’s instruments and then we (but mainly Catherine) go to work making sheet music to fit instruments such as D-whistles and Bb clarinets and so on.
Sue continues, “More recently, I have become more involved in music, having sung in choirs, played the recorder and piano (and joined a handbell team) for many years; more recently learning to play the ukulele.
When ‘Folk Jam Weekend’ appeared, I joined one, taking my tenor and bass ukuleles and tenor recorder, and had a super time with a great variety of instruments and interesting music selections. I’ve attended a few of these, and am looking forward to my next one, booked for December 2025.
A lot of the work for Catherine and I is in the preparation. Once we get to the holiday, we enjoy introducing the songs and working with the group to make the music come alive. Everyone works to their own level of ability to fit in where they can. At the end of the weekend, we perform a concert for walkers and other guests at the house. These are very popular and feature music from the group as well as by soloists.
If the idea of these holidays looks interesting you can learn more about HF membership and booking here: https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/
Our upcoming dates for Folk Jam are:
October 17-20, 2025 Coniston
November 21-24, 2025 Dovedale
December 5-8, 2025 Abingworth
January 23-26, 2026 Church Stretton
[April 3-6, 2026 Dovedale. This is Ukulele only, not Folk Jam, and is still getting finalized so it may not be advertised yet]
I’ll leave the last words to Chris and Sue:
Chris says, “Ralph is a superb songwriter, and I have since played some of his songs at local events in my own area and seen smiles on everyone’s faces. I then tell them about the man they have never heard of because of his long years away in Canada. We are glad to have him back! I look forward to my next HF Holiday Folk Jam in Abingworth the first weekend in December.”
Sue says, “As a long-term HF member, I like the HF experience for a number of reasons. Firstly, the co-operative nature of the business, with the houses being well run, with good food and facilities, and everyone expected to mix.
As a single person, this community feel – and no discriminatory single room supplement – make HF my go-to company for special interest holidays. My only bugbear is that the houses tend to be ‘up north’ making travelling to them time consuming and expensive from my home in Kent.
The holidays are well organised, and enjoyable, and pass all too quickly! I shall continue to attend holidays that interest me, as long as they are provided and I am able.”