1st Woodcutts Scout Group 1957-2007

How It All Started

By John Curtis

2007 is the centenary of the scout movement. Locally it is a very special year for us, as it is our 50th anniversary. This is the history of the early years.

In September 1954 whilst at choir practice at St James Church, Alderholt, members were discussing the formation of a Scout Troop which would be meeting for the first time that evening. Six members of the choir had been invited to form the initial patrol. I asked them if I would be allowed to join them but was told that I would have to wait to a later date.

I thought, “Blow that for a game of soldiers”, so when they left the church I followed but at a distance so that they couldn't see me. I watched them all file into Mr. Arthur King’s house and after they had been inside for 5 minutes or so I banged on the door and Mr. King appeared. I said that I wanted to join his scouts. Thankfully he said, "Come on in." Thus began my so far lifelong membership of the Scout association.

In 1956 I moved home to live at Woodcutts and it wasn't long before I was enrolled at Sixpenny Handley School. After the first day I had got to know some of the lads and I started to ask around where the local scout troop met for their meetings. To my horror I discovered that there wasn't one. After a few days deliberation, being young and naïve, I thought heck the only thing to do is to start a troop myself.

Over the next few days I invited the boys at school to come and join me. Eventually I ended up with a list of five: Ray Churchill, Chris Bagg, Chris Day, Ian Adlem and Michael Maidment. Next, I wrote to my old Scout master, Mr. Raison, at Alderholt to enquire if he would help me. He wrote back that if I held weekly meetings he would come over once a month to test us on what we had learnt. (This must have been quite difficult for him as he only had an old auto cycle.) Sadly Sid is no longer with us.

So was born the 1st Woodcutts Boy Scout Group, although for a year we were to remain a subsidiary of 1st Alderholt. Our first meeting was held on a Friday night in my stepfather’s very large coal shed. As we got to the longer and warmer evenings we erected a flag pole on Woodcutts Common, still meeting there on a Friday evening.

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After 2 or 3 months of running our troop I decided, after discussions with Skip Raison, that it was time to start up a second patrol of six lads. As it happened all of these lads were to come from the Farnham area: Jeff White, Anthony Frampton, Micky Moores, John Durbridge, Jimmy Joyce and Chris Abrams. Having named our first patrol ‘Wolf’ we decided to call our second one ‘Stag’. By now the first six had passed their Tenderfoot badge, had been invested and were all on their second class badge. Within a few weeks it was time to invest the second patrol of six, all of them having passed their Tenderfoot badge. Skip Raison said that a man in Alderholt who had been at the first scout camp held by Baden Powell on Brownsea Island (I believe his name was Mr Maitland) wanted to come to our investiture and present the troop with a union flag and a prayer book - what an honour to meet one of the first Scouts to come into being. We all met around the flag pole on Woodcutts Common, had our investiture and our presentation and having been invited, Mr Maitland said prayers. At our next meeting Skip Raison informed us all that Alderholt Troop were going to camp at Tiptoe in the New Forest asked if any of us would like to join them. I cannot remember how many of us took advantage but we all had a good time.

By this time the head of the Wimborne District Scouts had heard of our exploits and had decided to call a public meeting at Sixpenny Handley School. I think in the November of 1956. Local people and Scout parents were invited. The idea was to form a Group Committee so as to launch an official 1st Woodcutts Scout Group. George Tozer was elected as Chairman, Miss Blythe as Secretary (a distant relative of Blythe of the Bounty) and also elected was her companion Miss Hooper. Others elected were Mrs Churchill, Mrs Maidment and Jean Woods. Mr Les Bagg volunteered to be Treasurer.

George remained with the Group until his untimely death last year, 46 years as Chairman and 3 years as President. The National Scout Association recognised his devotion to duty by awarding him the Medal of Merit (and Bar). How I miss him. He helped me such a lot and I owe him a debt I can never repay.

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The troop continued to enjoy the activities, passing badges along the way. John Curd became our Scout Master in Jan 1957. During the spring of that year the District were holding elections to find four scouts from our District to become part of the Dorset County Contingent to go to the World Jamboree at Sutton Coldfield. I was fortunate enough to be one of those four and I enjoyed 3 fabulous weeks at the event (even though wet most of the time).

This was held at the beginning of August 1957. I took part in many activities and met other Scouts from all over the world. Meanwhile the District were holding their own Jamboree nearby at a place called Packington Park. Amongst them were some of my old mates from Alderholt and more importantly four of the lads from 1st Woodcutts. During their camp they were able to visit the world jamboree and I was able to meet up with them.

Scouting continued in the Troop throughout the autumn, winter and spring of 57-58. It was decided to hold our next summer camp at Brockenhurst in the New Forest. Skip Raison agreed to accompany us as John Curd was inexperienced at organising a camp of this magnitude. We set off with all our kit and ourselves in the back of Morley's gravel lorry (good job it was dry).

During our camps we always received a visit from our host district's District Commissioner (DC). The leaders and myself (having now been elevated to troop leader) were having a programme pow wow in Sid's tent and Sid whilst in conference always liked to have a beer to loosen the brain, or so he said (we others of course were forced to join him in a glass). Suddenly a lad burst into the tent and exclaimed "the DC is coming!" Panic set in, beer was very hurriedly consumed, bottles pushed out of sight (or so we thought), but in our haste one was still on full display. We all went out to meet the DC and conduct him around the camp whilst he did his site inspection. Afterwards he was invited into Sid's tent for a cup of tea and catching sight of the offending beer bottle he said "I would rather have a beer!" (All I can say is the beer must have done the trick, as we had an excellent camp report that year). Needless to say we learnt our lesson and never had an alcoholic drink during the hours of daylight again.

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January 1960 was to see a giant step forward in 1st Woodcutts’ fortunes. It was during our After Christmas Party (attended by Skip James, our then District Commissioner) that John Curd announced his resignation. You can imagine that just about killed our party spirit. Looking across the room, Skip James spotted Gilbert Hardiman, the father of one our scouts who had been one of Skip James’ scouts in Wimborne before the War. Recognizing him, he announced, with a loud roar, “Gilbert I have a job for you!”

During the evening, after much discussion, Bert was persuaded to take on the role recently vacated by John Curd. So was to begin a very happy and successful period not only for the group but for me also. Bert and I became firm friends and had a good working relationship without too many disagreements.

It was decided that year to hold our summer camp in the Bridport area. Bert and myself set off on his motorbike and sidecar and eventually ended up at the end of a very narrow lane at a farm called Downhouse (owned by the National Trust). The tenant farmer took us across several fields eventually arriving at a field which sloped on either side with a nice flat area in the middle. The only source of water was from a concrete surrounded spring which had a liberal amount of cow dung around it. Imagine what Health & Safety would say today! It was decided that this would be all right providing that we boiled all our water. On further exploration of the site, imagine our delight when we discovered that we were adjacent to the cliff edge over which we would be able, with cut steps and ropes, to have direct access to the beach. Health & safety what health & safety? It was decided that this camp site would be ideal, so the beginning of the summer holidays saw us loading all our camping gear and ourselves onto Morey’s gravel lorry.

On arrival at the farm we all disembarked and unloaded the camping gear off the lorry and onto a trailer which the farmer then transported across to the camp site. We had one further problem. Bert had been unwell for several days before our departure and so we had to set off without him. I had to manage for three days on my own. Not a problem in itself, my camping skills being pretty good, but my cooking was lousy. Imagine my relief when on the Tuesday lunchtime Colin Card exclaimed, “Here comes Skipper!” All the lads rushed over to help him carry his camping gear – he had been pretty poorly having lost about a stone in weight.

What a wonderful week’s camp we had: the weather was warm and sunny; lots of visits to the beach; a jolly good hike along the coastal path to Charmouth and along the beach to Lyme Regis, where we spent the rest of the day. We were all pretty tired by the time it was decided to return to camp. Bert managed to persuade a couple of fishermen to take us by boat to Charmouth where we caught a bus service to take us pretty much to the end of our journey. We all slept well that night and all too soon it was time to load everything onto the lorry again for our return home.

The rest of the year progressed as usual studying for and receiving our badges. In January of 1961 I received my Assistant Scout Master’s permit. In the spring of that year, Mrs. Hardiman (Akela) and Miss Cook (Baloo) started a Cub Pack which was very successful. I could go on and on about our adventures.

In 1964 I was made up to Scout Master and Bert became Group Scout Master and Chris Bagg became Assistant Scout Master. During our tenure the troop went from strength to strength, winning the District Tent Pitching Competition, the District Camping Competition (6 times) and in the county equivalent came second twice. The group committee beavered away raising funds which enabled us to do all of these things. I have to say a big thank you to all the local people who have always come up trumps in supporting what we have done.

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We had been looking for more adult help. A friend of mine said that a police sergeant had moved into Cobley Close as Woodyates and that they thought that he had once been a Scout. So it was that Keith Prince (who was assistant scout leader at the time) and myself rang the doorbell of Tony Dale’s house during the Christmas Break of 1978. On hearing that we were from the local Scout group, even though he had a house full of guests, we were invited in for a drink. During our conversation, it appeared that we already knew each other as he was a Scout in Verwood at the same time that I was in Alderholt group. We had played football against each other during our annual Verwood versus Alderholt Scouts game (which we always lost). Tony was persuaded to come along to our next Scout meeting and at the end of that evening agreed to be another assistant leader.

Around that time Simon Meaden (one of the Scouts) was fast approaching 16, the time when either you join a Venture Scout section (16-24 years of age) or else leave the movement. Simon had a long discussion with Tony and Plod (as he was to be nicknamed) tasked Simon & Kevin Prince with finding enough youngsters of the right age to form a Woodcutts Venture Unit. The agreement that they made was that if the two of them could get enough youngsters together then Tony would become its leader. After several weeks, Simon said that he had 10 young people who wanted to join. The only problem was that half of them were girls. Not a problem in itself, but Skip Hardiman (as Group Scout Leader) would have to be convinced that it would be a good idea to have a mixed unit. After much discussion it was agreed to proceed. What a good decision that was: our unit turned out to be the best in Dorset. During the time that it was in being, the youngsters achieved 3 Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards, 1 Silver and eleven Queen’s Scout Awards. To my knowledge this was never bettered by any other Venture Unit in Dorset.

In 1986 (I think) the whole group including the leaders went to Guernsey for a joint Summer Camp. We had a wonderful time but it was during this camp that Skip Hardiman had a bad turn which we think was a mild heart attack and had to return home. The following year, after attending a fund raising function at the HQ, Skip was to suffer another attack and sadly he passed away that evening. A sad loss to his family and certainly to the Woodcutts Group.

The final chapter started in 2007 when Denise Turner agreed to take on the daunting task of setting up a Beavers group, thus allowing us to cater for the full range of young people from 6 to 18. Sadly, our hut is in such a poor state of repair that they have to use the Village Hall for their sessions, but the group is vibrant and full of enthusiastic young children. Denise is very grateful for all the help she gets from parents and other leaders from the group.

As we celebrate our 50th Anniversary, or Golden Jubilee to use the scouting term, we look forward to the future and the challenge of raising funds for a new hut. I am proud to have been involved with the group for so many years and hope to continue for many more. I would like to thank all of those people who have given their time so willingly to serve on the Group Committee - without their fund-raising efforts we could never have survived. I would also like to thank the parishioners who have always given their financial and moral support whenever called upon. Lastly, I would like to thank all the young, and now not so young, people who have made the group what it is today because without them 1st Woodcutts would not exist.