Earleywood Scout Campsite News

In early August Earleywood was delighted to welcome 40 employees of the Yell Group, Reading to site to undertake a days service. During the day various members repainted the walls and floor of the Rowney Building, re-stained some outside wood panels, cleared some holly and rhododendron and the streams, and removed the grids from the Scout Centre windows and claimed them inside and out. At lunchtime they were joined by their American director who take charge of the BBQ. At the end of the day they were thanked by EMC reps and presented with certificates in appreciation of their assistance not just for undertaking the work but also for providing all the materials required during the days work. Thanks are also due to CONNECT Reading who undertake the task of putting companies who wish to donate time with charities who have jobs they need doing.

In early September Paul Sinclair and a colleague plus 6 apprentices from Southern Electric also spent a day on site again doing stream and bush clearance, this time at the front end of the site, and also gave the Centre kitchen a thorough clean. Thanks to Paul for arranging this.

Central Area Refurbishment

Thanks to a donation from an ex-member of the Movement who was associated with the site, and who remembers many happy times spent with his friends and enjoying the facilities as a member of the Service Crew, we have recently been able to have new land drains laid in the central area (by the flag pole). The balance of the funds required were loaned/donated by the 2 managing districts. We are very grateful to all concerned for allowing us to get this much needed work completed.

We very much hope that this will cure the flooding problems we have been dogged with for a number of years and will enable the area to once again be used for games and as a central assembly area.

Whether the area will be fully opened for use this coming season has yet to be decided, and it all depends on how quickly the area drains and how well the new grass takes. The contractor will be returning soon to check on the improvements and to roll the area, to provide flatter ground for games.

Other Improvement Activities

The Rowney Building had a makeover last year thanks to the Berkshire Community Foundation who provided us with a Grassroots Grant to refurbish the kitchen area and to improve the lighting in the building. The work was actually undertaken by pupils of The Wishmore Cross School, Woking. These pupils often visit Earleywood during term time, to partake in backwoods activities as part of their curriculum. The work was supervised by skilled craftsman and an excellent job was achieved. Our thanks go to the Berkshire Community Foundation, and to Wishmore Cross School.

We also had to replace the main gate as it had started to deteriorate badly. The gate was originally erected as a memorial to a member of the 1^st Ascot Scout Group and we are grateful to the Group for a donation towards the replacement costs. We took the opportunity to move the gate a few metres back from its original position, which we hope will improve the safety of visitors when they arrive and leave the site.

Climbing Wall

We are very pleased with the activities on the climbing wall, which continues to be well used.

We still have some evening and weekend dates available for this summer so if you want to give your young people a taster session please contact Alan for available dates.

Don’t forget that flood lights are available to allow users to climb after dark. Ideal for the early Spring and Autumn evenings.

A highlight of last year was the leader training course led by Berkshire County Climbing Assessor Ian Kirkham. We are hopeful that there will be more training courses for leaders on the Earleywood wall this coming year, including one for Scout Leaders who wish to upgrade their qualification to enable them to supervise Guides. If you are interested in supervisor or rope leader training please register with Alan (earleywood(AT)aol.com) who can then liaise with the potential trainers.

We will be pleased to allow climbing by schools or other youth groups and therefore if you have any contacts with other organisations please pass on our details to them.

The Centenary of Girl Guiding

We congratulate our sister movement on their Centenary and wish you all a very successful year. We are delighted with the number of Guide and Brownie units that take advantage of our facilities and are pleased to be hosting several centenary events over the next few months.

Service Crew Vacancies

We currently have a small number of mainly Explorer Scouts, who assist with maintenance on the site. Crew membership can be individual or by Explorer Unit, Network Group or Fellowship Unit. Ideally we would like around 6/8 crews to provide a rota particularly during the main season April to September. We intend holding an “Open Day” in the near future when interested people/units can visit the site, meet each other and hear more detail of what being a crew member is all about. We will advertise the date nearer the time but if you would like to ensure you receive details please e-mail earleywood(AT)aol.com.

Site Cleaning up – Team Weekends

The mainstay of our maintenance programme is the twice yearly working days/weekends. Over the last few years the team have done some excellent work in many different areas and we are extremely grateful to them. Attendance at these weekends is open to anyone over the age of 14 who is prepared to work and at the same time have fun and like-minded companionship and friendship. The date of the next week-end is 15/16 May (day time only – no overnight stays) from 09.30 to , there is no charge and refreshment is provided. You can attend both days or one day or part of a day. If you want to be sure to receive further details please contact earleywood(AT)aol.com

Site Arrival Timing!

Could we please remind you about the importance of booking the right time for arrival on site. There are differing interpretations of the booking in time. This ranges from the meeting at your own HQ to the expected arrival of the participants. This results in either vehicles parked in a dangerous position on the busy road outside the gate or an irate duty warden sitting waiting wondering if there has been a cancellation.

Please book the expected time of the first arrival at Earleywood so we can open up in time for you.

Trolleys

We have recently bought a number of new trolleys to help with the movement of kit from the car park to your camping area. These are very expensive and we cannot keep on replacing them, so please ensure that they are looked after and used in a proper manner. Riding on them is strictly forbidden.

Trees and Woodland

The whole of the Earleywood Site is covered by a Tree Preservation Order issued by the local council. This means that in order to carry out any work on the woodland area we need their permission. Several members of the Management Committee recently met with one of the Tree Officers for an extremely helpful and useful discussion.

As a result of this meeting we are likely to be undertaking some cutting back of the tree canopy in a number of areas, including the removal of some existing trees. In order to do this we will be required to plant a number of new trees, although not necessarily in the same places. If anyone would like to take this opportunity to plant a tree at Earleywood in commemoration of someone or of an event we would be pleased to discuss this. Again please contact earleywood(AT)aol.com

New Services Available at Earleywood

With effect from the beginning of May we will have available for use by campers c. 5/6 large games such as Jenga type brick game, garden quoits etc. There will be a small charge to enable us to replace/increase the games over time, and a deposit to ensure we get them back in reasonable condition. Please contact us for further details.

Also for those of you who want to take your section away but have difficulty in finding the time to plan a camp programme we are introducing for a trial period “PROGRAMME IN A BOX”. For a fee of £8 for a one day programme or £19 for a two day programme we will provide you on arrival a box containing a fully detailed programme and all of the materials required (excluding food) to run a full and hopefully exciting programme. Initially there will only be one programme available but it will be adaptable for use by Beavers, Cubs or Scouts, but if the trial is successful we will introduce additional programmes.

and finally……

Earleywood’s Future

We have recently conducted a survey in order to gain some ideas of what site users like or dislike about our site. Although the response was less than we would have liked the results have given us some things to think about. We would hope to prioritise any future development in accordance with what the majority of users would like to see in the future. The Management Committee are currently considering the responses and considering how to respond. We will publish details of the resuIts and the committee's views on our website in around 4/6 weeks time. If you did not receive a survey form and would still like to contribute its not too late so please contact the member of the Management Committee who has put this together at andy(AT)southberksscouts.org.

EARLEYWOOD

UPDATE

The Centenary of Girl Guiding

Site Arrival Timing!