Tag: Scouts

While talking to my Dad this afternoon, he showed me a couple of photos he’d dug out. These are for a small display that is going up at the Church’s Hall which is 100 years old this year (youngsters! The Church itself was built in 1881).

Anyway one of the photos was this one –

We think this is from the late 1950’s and shows some of our Cubs and Scouts along with some of the Church’s Guides with the Church Queen. We think the flag they are holding is the Troop flag we’ve just retired.

The other photo was of a dinner held at the Hall in the mid 1970’s. This in itself isn’t that interesting on the Scouting front, but in the background is something we’ve been searching for for a couple of years.

It’s a framed photo of the Troop in the late 1910’s or early 1920’s (I think) and it’s the earliest photo of the Troop we know of. The trouble is, we don’t know where it is! A few members of the Group have vague recollections of it (me included), but no one knows what actually happened to it!

I really hope that it hasn’t been thrown away and I’d be quite disappointed if it has. We’re hoping it’s hidden away somewhere in the Hall. There is a rumour that it could be under the stage somewhere – I hope so.

We have the negative of the above photo, so when my Mum digs it out, I’m going to scan it with my negative scanner and hope that I get get a slightly better image.

I would be great, however, to find the original!

Couple of quick updates.

I’ve recently come across a blog from an Assistant Scout Leader from Watford. So that’s now two I know of in this country! I like his most recent post on fire lighting at camp – all so true!

Monday will be interesting as the new UK Chief Scout will be announced. He or she will replace our current Chief, Peter Duncan. The are a lot of rumours being put about (not least by Moley UPDATE 18/05/09 This was a Twitter account that now seems to have gone!) that it will be Bear Grylls. More about all this on Monday.

I’ve been looking at the Group’s calendar and it seems we have quite a busy time over the next couple of months and I’ll keep you all posted here. Cub camp at Kibblestone next weekend – looking forward to it!

The Scouts are currently looking at various criteria for camping to gain their Outdoor Challenge or Outdoor Challenge Plus badges. One of the areas they are looking at is there various types of stoves available. Last night they tried a Trangia, a Coleman stove, a couple of portable gas stoves and an old Primus stove. Once all were lit, we boiled some water on each to see which was the quickest. The oldest, the Primus, narrowly won!

It was a bit of a job getting the Primus stove to light as it was quite windy. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of using a Primus, paraffin stove, here is how it works and how it is lit, courtesy of the Base Camp web site

On pressurising the fuel tank, Paraffin, (kerosene), is forced from the fuel tank through the rising tube. The burner tubes are pre-heated by methylated spirit, (alcohol), in the spirit cup below the burner.
When sufficiently heated a fine spray of hot paraffin gas leaves through a jet at the centre of the burner, air mixes with the gas and the mixture hits the burner plate where the flame ring directs the gas into a circle. Here the gas burns with the characteristic sound that gives this style of burner the name ‘Roarer’. 

Lighting procedure for a Paraffin stove is as follows:-

1) Make sure the air screw is loose to release any existing pressure.
2) Unscrew filler cap and ensure there is sufficient paraffin,(kerosene), in the tank, approx. 3/4 full, replace cap.
3) Fill the preheater cup with methylated spirit, (alcohol) and light. Ensure stove is sheltered from the wind or fit the windshield.
4) LEAVE THE STOVE ALONE!!, don’t fiddle!, when the spirit is almost burned out close the air screw and give a few strokes on the pump, the stove should light at the top of the burner. Have a match or lighter ready in case the stove does not light immediately.
5) Should the flame burn unevenly around the burner the jet may be blocked.Wire cleaning needles or ‘prickers’ are used to reach into the flame and clean the jet. Use the correct diameter ‘pricker’ for the stove, 0.2mm – 0.3mm, bent pieces of wire etc. will damage the fine jet.
6) If the stove flares release the pressure by opening the air screw and allow to burn down. Before re-lighting the stove always loosen the air screw to release any pressure present.
7) To adjust the height of the flame at the burner loosen the air screw gradually, this releases some pressure and the flame will go down. To increase the flame again increase pressure by gentle pumping, do not over-pump or the tank can be damaged.
With practice it will take less time to light your stove than read these instructions!

Phew! It is a bit more awkward to light one of these than a modern gas stove, but once they are going they are great!

However, they are extremely robust and last forever! Similarly, when camping we use Tilley type lamps to light us up at night. Again, they are a little more effort to get going but are worth while.

In fact our lamps are ex MOD ones which were bought ‘as new’ and they were made in the 1950’s. The stoves are all well over 40 years old and all still work. I’m going to have to bring the lamps home soon to give them a bit of an overhaul and some TLC, same with the stoves, but they will continue to work for many years to come. Built to last!

A couple of years ago, when I was in our Group’s Church, I was looking at the plaque on the wall which commemorates the Scouts from our Troop that died in the Great War (First World War). I decided to try and find out more about them as they were the pioneers of our Group and without them we wouldn’t be here (in more ways than one if you think about it!).

So I started to look them all up on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s web site and put together our own online memorial to them. A couple were a bit difficult to locate and I’ve made a couple of educated ‘guesses’ about the details, but one or two escaped me.

Yesterday, I was able to find the last one. A chap who has been researching the details of the people listed on the Wolstanton War Memorial got in touch with me as he’d been looking at the Porthill one as well and was interested in the memorial I’d put together.

He found the details of the missing Scout, Harold Bailey, in an old issue of the local newspaper –

Sentinel 28th September 1918
Harold Bailey killed in action on the 25th March 1918 of the KOYLI eldest son of the late Charles Frederick Bailey of Porthill & Tunstall, he was aged 19.

So I looked him up on the CWGC website and there he was.

Interestingly, he was killed 4 days before, and I assume in the same battle, as my Great Grandfather and is also commemorated at the same memorial in France. Neither have a know grave, although I  am looking forward to when the Red Cross’s WW1 casualty records become available.

I did look to see if Harold was mentioned in a hand written book I have which lists all the names of the boys in the Troop in 1909 or 1910 (see here , but beware, it is a large download), but he isn’t. In fact only one of the Scouts killed in WW1 is mentioned and that was Joseph W Simpson, who, interestingly is commemorated at the Basra Memorial. Shows how time may go on, but some things don’t change.

I’m glad I‘ve found this last Scout, as they all deserve to be remembered properly by the current members of the Group.

The results of this year’s Census have just been published and is shows that the number of Scouts and Leaders are up again!

From the Scout Association’s website –

Scouting has grown for the fourth year running. Adult volunteering is increasing at the fastest rate for 23 years and there are now just as many girls as boys joining the Movement.
This year Scouting has seen an increase in adult volunteers with growth up from 1.6% to 2.6%. There have only been two other occasions in the last 23 years where the growth of adult leaders has exceeded 2%.
Female membership is up 11% across the UK smashing the 50K barrier. A surge of over 5,500 new girl Scouts means that over the past 12 months almost as many girls as boys have signed up to the adventure of Scouting.
Girls have been part of the adventure since 1976 and this year female membership pushed well past the 50,000 mark to a record 56,470.
This means that girls now account for 14% of all youth members of the Scout Movement. Female leadership is also booming, with women now making up around 43% of all adult volunteers.

 

I haven’t copied the entire text, which you can read for yourself.

This is really great news and proves what a great job Groups are doing up and down the country. I think a part of the reason for the increase in numbers is the Centenary celebrations in 2007. By getting a lot of positive publicity, this reminded people that we still existed and that we provide interesting, different and challenging activities for young people which doesn’t involve the TV!

An interesting point to note is the number of adults has increased again. Without adult Leaders, Groups cannot provide the quality programmes and numbers decrease.

It’s quite noticeable that our Group is virtually full and cannot take any more kids in any of the sections! This is not through want of Leaders, but through the fact that we can’t reasonably fit any more in the hall.

That’s kind of a nice situation to be in!

Just back from our District’s St. George’s day Parade. It is quite impressive to see so many young people from both the Guiding and Scouting Movements in one place. When we were parading, we couldn’t hear the band at the front for most of the time as they were so far away from us!

When we got to the Church, we filled it!

The theme of the ‘service’ was working together. I say ‘service’ as it was mainly a few hymns, including the Scout Hymn and the National Anthem, some songs, a sketch by the Beavers and the presenting of a Queen’s Scout Award. And of course we all renewed our promises.

Not a bad afternoon and it is good to be able to parade through Newcastle in such numbers and remind people that we’re still here and still providing interesting and different thing for our young people to do.

I am very proud to say that today marks the 25th anniversary of my Group’s Cub Leader becoming an official, appointed Leader. She started helping out with the Pack when my Dad & Mum ran it and took out an official appointment as an Assistant Cub Leader when she was old enough. Since then, she became the Cub Leader and has got married and raised two daughters (one of whom is now our Beaver Leader).

To be a Leader for this long shows great commitment to Scouting and the young people in our area. I know some people become stale after a long period in one role and we all have ‘off weeks’, but the Pack is full and along with some of the newer Assistants (well every other Leader is newer really!) she has come up with some exciting activities over the next few months and the Cubs are earning badges faster than I can order them!

At the Group’s Annual General Meeting in June, we’ll be making a fuss of her and making some presentations to her as a way of saying a huge thank you. I can get away with writing all this without giving the game away as I know she won’t read this!

Twenty five years shows real commitment to Scouting and I’m very impressed and proud that she is in our Group and long may she continue!

After I wrote about last weekend’s hike and camp with the Scouts and mentioned that my boots rubbed and gave me a blister, up popped this post on the Troop 483 Blog on keeping your feet happy. Wow that’s timing!

With all that in mind, yesterday Carol and I had a day out to Betws-y-Coed and hit the outdoor shops. It’s a bit of a trek there (160 miles round trip), but it’s a lovely place to visit and meant we had a nice day out.

We went to Cotswold Outdoors and I had my feet sized properly and boots fitted. I tried three totally different types of boot and two didn’t feel right and didn’t fit correctly and one boot was fine, so these were the ones I bought.

I also got some new socks (thought I’d go the whole hog), so this should mean I won’t get blisters! I’m going to try them out in a day or two by walking part of the route we did last week, as this simple easy hike was the one which caused my problems!

So as Buffaloeagle says keep your feet happy!