History
The 1st Harston Scout Group have a long history reaching back over 100 years!
The first recorded Scout group was back in the 1920’s and lasted for about three years. The troop was reform on the 21st February 1934 and finally closed sometime during the war.
It wouldn’t be until March 1969 when a need was identified in the area and Dave Clark was asked to help run a new Scout group that the troop was once more reformed and has gone from strength to strength. After three months Dave went from helping out to running the whole show. His back ground in the Army established the policy of the Group from day one, providing a programme of well organised adventure and fun in a controlled and safe environment.
David finally retired as Group Scout Leader in December 1995 and Roger Summerfield, having been one of his leaders, took over in January 1996. Roger’s Scouting history, no he didn’t know Baden Powell, goes back to his Cub days in 1948, thorough Scouts, senior Scouts and the world jamboree of 1957 up to him joining us here at the 1st Harston as a leader in 1972
The records for our Cub pack start in 1973 when Betty Holmes was Akela, a job she did up to when she reached the Scout Associations official retirement age for leaders in 1996.
The group owes both Dave and Betty a great debt of gratitude.
The group continues to runs both a Cub pack for boys and girls aged 8 to 10.5 and a Scout troop for boys and girls aged 10.5 to 14.5. The group caters for the villages of Harston, Hauxton, Newton and Foxton but also have members from other villages as well.
The Cubs are run by Brenda Free (Akela) assisted by Colin Free (Baloo) and Amanda Free (Kaa). Since they took over the Cubs Brenda and Colin have increased the numbers attending each week and now have a waiting list. Our Scout leaders are Tim Anderson, Ben Harris and James Prisk. The troop is fed mainly by boys and girls from the Cub pack but also takes boys and girls coming into Scouting for the first time. As with the Cubs, the numbers attending Scouts has grown over the years and we currently maintain 25-30 members in four to five patrols.
We are very lucky that we have two long serving Scout members, Nigel Tebbit and Nigel Clark who not only help out at camps but allows us the use of their premises in Shelford and Melbourn for outdoor cooking and other Scouting activities.