The History Of
The 11th Workington (Harrington) Scout Group
1930 - 2009
by Andrew Brown
Tom Labalestier -The First Scout Leader- (Circa 1930)
Introduction
The main purpose of writing this was to pull together all the happy memories that have been created for many people thanks to the Harrington Scout Group in the hope that the funds raised from a publication will go to help in the quest to build a new headquarters to ensure the continuation of Scouting in Harrington.
As we get older, we realise that we may not have conveyed our thanks to the people who inspired us in our formative days. This book is my way of thanking all the people who have had an input into making the 11th Workington Scout Group a success since the first meeting in 1930… and especially the leaders of the sections who have inspired and encouraged us to “Do our best”
In writing this book, I have questioned many people from 18 to 80 and asked them if they believed the Scouting movement had made an impact on their lives in a positive way. The replies have been a resounding “Yes” and so I have therefore come to the conclusion that the Harrington Scout Group has over the last 70 + years achieved the purpose of scouting, which is defined as:
“To promote the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potentials, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities.”
As an aid memoir for those with failing memories, I have listed a “Role of Honour” with dates of service for all the Scout Leaders, Assistant Scout Leaders and others who have supported the Group throughout its existence. I am convinced that I will not have identified all the people who have played major roles in ensuring the group continued to function so effectively, but I would be pleased to hear from those who may have further information or stories to enable us to look into publishing a revised version at a later date.
1930 – 1940
With the help of the Reverend Wilkinson, the Harrington Scout Group was registered on the 16th October 1929, with Mr Joseph James Irving as Scout Master. He was assisted by a Mr Tom Labalastier.
Tom was born in Harrington in (Salterbeck cemy),. Several photographs of Tom and his group have been recovered. The names of those identified in the group at that time are:-
It is believed that the Group used to meet regularly at ( to be determined Ed')
From the photograph below, it appears that pioneering was one of their specialities.
1930 - Branthwaite
1933 Arnside – Joe Irving was the Scout Master – Joe Bibby Rover scout Master
1934 Goldilea Dumfries
1935 ?
1936 Ennerdale
1937 Arnside – Jambourie Earnest White Attended- Mary Whites info on Campsite and Orange neckerchiefs
1938 ? Joe Bibby Rover scout Master
1939- 1945 (War Years)
1940 – 1950
1946 ?
1947 ?
1948 Bassenthwaite
1949 Rockcliffe, Kirkcudbright
1950 – 1960
1950 Lockerbie
1951 Patterdale
1952 Eskdale
1953 Jamboree, Brathy
1954 Gatehouse of Fleet
1955 Wasdale
1956 Wray Castle
1957 Wray Castle
1958 Glen Mona, Isle of Man
1959 Rhyd-y-Foel, Abergele
(cumberland Evening Star 29th May 1956) Eric Timmins of the 11th Workington built a platform 15 feet up a tree, lit a fire on the platform and made a cup of tea. This was for his pioneering badge.
(Picture of Malcolm Gill in a hike tent also on evening star)
1960 – 1970
Members of the Scout Group during this period were:- Paul Harper, Dave Scott, Peter Hodgson, Brian Stainton, John Boal, Dave Berry, Keith Ferguson, Aidrian Dawson, Chris Johnson, Alan Feckie, Brynn Hunter
1960 Loch Venacher, Trossachs
1961 Loch Doine, Balquhidder
1962 Clandeboye, Northern Ireland
1963 Loch Garr
1964 Llanbedr, Wales
1965 Finlarig, Loch Tay
1966 Denmark
1967 Carradale, Kintyre
1968 Morenish,
1969 Carradale
1970 – 1980
Members of the Scout Group during this period were:-
Glenn Brown, Nigel Sandwith, Jeremy Wilson, S Hunter, M Huddart, S Armstrong, I McClintock, Stephen Broadbent, Barry Earl, Chris Brew, I Johnstone, Alan Hardy, John Fisher, Clifford Stables, Ian Stewart, K Rodney, I Burns, John Messenger, Paul Little (Hoss), I Todhunter, Derek Todhunter, Martin Pronovitch, G Sandwith (Spuggy) Malcolm Leach, N Stockdale, Alan Irving, David Armstrong(Beaky), P Chadwick, Ian Ridley, Nicholas Crellin, M Chesters, P Hewitt, Robert Fisher, B Walker, Andrew Brown(Brownie), Peter Armstrong, Neil Messenger(Messy), Mark Henderson, David Nicholson, David Long, David McFarland, Paul Armstrong, Kevin Armstrong(Kojak), Lee Tia, Sunny, David Walker, Gary Palmer, Gordon Douglas (Doogie), Andrew O Connor, Wayne Brown, Neil Edmondson
1970 - Holland “Beukenwood” Nr Lage Vuursche
Scout Leader:- Jos Dobie
Venture Scouts:- J Boal, D Johnston, A Bragg, D Banks, P Todhunter.
Squirrel Patrol:- B Earl, C. Dodds, M Cooke I Douglas, K Shaw, N Holliday, P Little.
Other Patrol:- B Shaw, G Askew, J Banks, G Brown, T Graham, P Shaw.
Extract From Log Book:- “We left Harrington at 9pm on the morning of the 31st July. After camping at Gillwell Park over the weekend we arrived at the campsite late on the 3rd August. We hire a bike from one of the many hire firms and used it to collect supplies from the village, towards the end of the camp the back wheel got badly buckled and we had to pay the equivalent of £5. The money in Holland was guilders, of which about eight are equal to £1.”
“On the final Thursday of the camp we took our tents down and slept in the open that night, of course as we had done this, it poured down halfway through the night and some Scouts arrived at Gillwell on Friday night in a rather damp state. We stayed the night at Gillwell and arrived home on the 15th after driving through the day.
1971 Loch Tummel
1972 - Carradale
Extract from Log Book:- “We left the Scout Hut at 9:30, we passed through Glasgow early next morning, but we arrived later than we expected because the exhaust kept dropping, Toddy was the key man who fixed it every time. The activities we did were canoeing in the sea, shooting the air rifle, fishing off Carradale pier ( Robert Fisher even caught a Cod). We used over 1000 pellets in the rifle and used beer cans as targets. The weather wasn’t very good but we made an ariel runway, Reg Ayre’s wife even had a go down it. 2 lads were homesick, but only one of them had to go home.”
1973 - Isle of Man
Raven:- P Little(Patrol Leader) S Armstrong (Assistant Patrol Leader) S Hunter, C Br ew, I Stuart, K Rodney.
Eagle:- D Todhunter (Patrol Leader) E Johnstone (Assistant Patrol Leader) B Walker, R Fisher, M Chesters, C Stuart.
Beaver:- N Sandwith (Patrol Leader) S Broadbent (Assistant Patrol Leader) J Bell, G Sandwith, A Hardy, D Armstrong.
Squirrel:- G Brown (Patrol Leader) N Stockdale (Assistant Patrol Leader) P Chadwick, C Stables, J Wilson, M Huddart.
Extract from Log Book:-“ 29 people went in total, we were in four Patrols. We travelled down to Liverpool and boarded our ship, the “Ben-my-chree”. The crossing took around 3 hours. We camped 1 mile north of Laxey at a place called Ballermoor. While we were on the Isle of man there was a fire at the Summerland Pleasure Centre at Douglas, 51 people died in the fire. We used the horse tram that ran along the sea front at Douglas, the horses ran for 2 hours and then they were changed. A ticket for t]#he horse tram cost 5 pence from Victoria Pier to Derby Castle.”
1974 Holland, Naaldenveld Campsite Nr Zandvoort.
Scouters and Others:- J Dobie, B Arnott, Mr Todhunter, Mrs Todhunter, Mrs Arnott.
Patrol 1:- P Little, G Brown, J Fisher, E Johnstone, G Sandwith, S Broadbent.
Patrol 2:- D Todhunter, N Sandwith, S Armstrong, J Bell, P Burns, N Stockdale.
Extract from Log Book:-We set off on Friday 26th July for Gilwell Park, we arrived in the small hours of Saturday morning so we just slept under ground sheets. Showers and changing rooms had been built since our last visit and of course the swimming pool. We then travelled to Dover and on to Ostende, the on to Naaldenveld. We met some French scouts at the campsite and challenged them to a game of football, in the first half we were 2:1 down to the French as we got accustomed to their style. In the second half Cumbrian brute force and ignorance won the game, the final score being 5:2 to us. At one stage tempers became frayed and the French brought on their reserves and had 13 men instead of 7.
1975
– (Mark Henderson) A long line was put out at night and the next morning we rowed out in canoes to inspect the line, we had caught some flatties but we had also caught a Conger Eel. Nigel Sandwith managed to fix it to the back of his canoe and rowed it onto shore. The Eel was photographed and it was the same height as Kojak (Kevin Armstrong). The Eel was put into water and was “Cooked” although I’m sure it was still moving when we started to cut into it
(Andrew Brown) – Clive Stockdale my Patrol Leader asked me to “Daz” (Washing Powder) a Dixie (a cooking pot). I didn’t know what this was so Clive showed me the Dixie and showed me how to mix up some “Daz” paste, the only thing he didn’t tell me was that the “Daz” was to go on the outside of the “Dixie” to help make the cleaning of the “Dixie easier when we had finished cooking on an open fire. I put the “Daz” paste on the inside and Clive wasn’t impressed when he came back, so we had soapy grub all week and I was put on bog duty. (Carrying the metal bog down the campsite to the sea and throwing in the sea. I think I washed my hands afterwards!!)
1978
1979
1980
Other Memories:-
o (Andrew Brown) Neil Messenger in the long plunge. He dived in at the shallow end and split his head open. He still managed to win the event though.
o (Christopher Brown) I drove the Big Green van down from the Scout HQ to the Church Hall, It wasn’t until I turned the corner that I realised you had to turn the wheel the other way, it didn’t straighten itself out as you turned the corner.
o (Andrew Brown) The “Big Brown Canvas Tent” was used to record all the camp dates and venue.
o (Glenn Brown) We were sailing on some lake, it was very windy, Sandwith is captain, we are going very fast and coming into shore.sandwith said to Edward Johnstone when I say jump ,jump out and stop us scraping the keel, so 50 meters from shore I shout jump and Jontie jumps. He’s dragged 45 meters into shore hanging onto a rope, he slows us down perfect, and I didn’t even get me feet wet!!.
o (Andrew Brown)Peter Armstrong was going down a aerial runway at Branthwaite and as he set off he realised that the brake rope was stuck in between his legs, as he was approx 20meters in the air he couldn’t let go but he knew that as he moved towards the bottom of the runway the brake rope would pull tight and push his manhood up towards his neck!!..It happened and Peter sang in the Choir for many years!!…
o (Andrew Brown) A heated discussion between Neil Messenger and Clive Stockdale.. A tent peg was thrown, a mallet was thrown back, and the only way to reply was to throw the nearest thing available…An Axe!!..It’sw a good job Messy was a bad shot!!
o (Glenn Brown) When I first joined we went to camps in an old Dennis bus, later we had the PUD wagon which was a green Bedford with the plate number PUD --- . We also had a red VW van, then we got the dads army van which was a former mines rescue vehicle. We went to Gillwell Park one year in the mines rescue van took us 27 hours to get there!! Well it was a long time. The first night there was a 5 a side soccer competition, .Paul Little, Derek Todhunter, Barry Walker and Stuart ----- won it, not a bad start to a great camp.
o “Goulash” (gunge)It was a word for all the leftovers put into a Dixie and boiled.
o 1972 “Eadie House” Scout HQ at East Avenue opened.
1980 – 1990
Members of Scout group, Andrew Hardy, Glenn Douglas (Bogger), Phil Messenger, Stephen Norman, Paul Hill, Simon Martin, Mike White, John Smitham, Stephen Tuck, Graham Hunter, Ruth Hardy, Julie Pattinson, Joanne Strong, Joanne Norman, Christine Fitsimmons, Dean Foster, David McCullough, Deborah Cowan, Nicholas Cunningham, Johnathon Sloan, Christine Nixon, Jill Porthouse, Anne Porthouse, Carolyn Griffiths, Angela Croft, Caroline Heaney, Andrew Kelly, Malcolm Rothery, Julie Croft, Judith Moffat, Louise Brown, David Walker, Jacquelyn Whitehead, Karen Sewell, Melanie Timms, Gillian Brown, David Pattinson, Paul Bradburn, Brent Wilson, Mike Hargreaves, Robert Haile, Wendy Collins, Paul Longstaff, Mark Sloan, Andrew Watson, Mandy Pugh, Andrew Longstaff, Neil Telford, Paul Maskill, Andrew Watson, Paul Rosser, Brian Carlton, Mark Sloan (Max), Anthony Ismay-Johnstone, Peter Hall
Leaders, , Chris Brown & Darcy Maughan, Nigel Sandwith Ron Hill
Camps
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985 – Patterdale (Side Farm, Blowick Bay).
Scout Leaders:- Nigel Sandwith & Ron Hill
Venture Scout Leaders:- Sam Burrows, Andrew Brown & Ann Walker
This was a combined camp of Scouts & Venture Scouts. It was perfect weather all week..Blue sky..7 days of blue sky. We awoke one morning and one group walked down the side of Ullswater and Canoed back and the other Canoed down and walked back. In the morning it was very quiet and the water was so calm it was as if we were the only ones in Cumbria. Nigel Sanwith brought his sailing Dingy, the Osprey and we used it all week, we snapped the dagger board when we came in to shore as we couldn’t raise it fast enough. We build a built a Hawyian style raft with bench seat 2 canadian canoes and sail flares for lights, then on the parents evening we sailed over to Patterdale to pick up Ann Hill as our main guest and delivered her to Ron at the Campsite. One day Ron spotted a man in distress at the top of a hill and sent out teams to help whilst he called the Mountain Rescue. Spuggy got their first and found out the bloke was waiving to his friends, so he told him that he was signing the international distress signal… as a result he apologised!! David Walker came to help with Climbing very tight harness and thus bits on display, Eskdale – Fisher Ground
1986 – Killen..Brent Wilson the only Scout who was constantly fishing but never caught anything, but at this camp he caught a Trout, but unfortunately for him Paul Rosser had gutted, cooked & eaten within 3 minutes.
Viking Venture:- 24th March 1986.
Leader(s):- Andrew Brown & Ann Walker
Venture Scouts:- David Pattinson, Paul Hill, Andrew Hardy, Gordon Douglas, Philip Messenger, Stephen Tuck, Glen Douglas, Stephen Tuck, Christine Fitzsimons, Julie Pattinson, Mandy Pugh.
Extract from Times & Star:- 13 members of the Harrington Venture Scout Unit joined around 1,400 colleagues from all over Britian recently on a trip across the North Sea to Denmark onboard the “Dana Anglia”. The Radio One roadshow was aboard ship with Peter Powell & Gary Davis.
Free Bacon Sponsored by Danish Bacon…roughest seas in the North Sea for 20 years…Dana Anglia…Jock Barr..Hena & Mya at Esberg..walking through Esberg suffering from Sea sickness…sick flowing down steps of the boat and landing on the back of my shirt….Go for a Sauna and discovered that someone had been sick in the sauna but hadn’t cleaned it up..very smelly Grange in Borrowdale
1987 – Bala, Ennerdale (Entmoot Camp)
1988 – Pitlochery, Austria ???
1989 – London Venture
1990 – Hawthorn Campsite, Dover, Kent.
Memories:-
David Walker at Patterdale camp up a tree in a climbing harness with bits of him trying to escape out of his shorts…the female Ventures seemed interested in this!!
Shouting for Mandy Pugh on London Venture whilst we were travelling on the underground…Where’s Mandy?.......She’s gone to the toilet..
30th August 1983 – Beckstone Venture Scout Unit first meeting.
1987:- Judith Moffat goes to Houston Texas USA on a 2 month summer Scout camp.
2- 4th October 1987 – 4 Venture Scouts win the “Lord Derby Competition”
1990 – 2000
1991 – Patterdale2
2000 -2006
2002 - Cumberee, Ennerdale, Braithwaite, St Johns in the vale
2003 - Sherwood, Scarness, Branthwaite
2004 - St.johns in the vale, Scarness, Branthwaite
2005 - Ratlingate, Triathlon
Thanks to the following:-
Bill Arnott Barra Harl, Arlecdon Road, Arlecdon, CA.26 3.UX Tel. No. 01946 - 861518..
Joe Irving & Tom Labalastier
Joe Bibby
Skip Whitaker
Arnold Ainsworth
Ron Glaister
Jos Dobie
Chris Brown
Darcy Maughan
Nigel Sandwith
Glenn Brown
Ron Hill
Bill Arnott
Reg Ayre
Andy Dietzhold
Malcolm Rothery
Sam Burrows
Terry Abbott
Iain Murray
Chris Stanger
Judith Dixon
Andrew Brown
Ann Brown (Ann Walker)
Julie Hardy (Julie Pattinson)
Andrew Hardy
Martin Finlinson
Simon Martin
Louise Firby (Louise Mc Cullough)
Vicki Foster
Julie Topping
Andrew Dawson
Charlotte Nutter
Pam Mitchell
Steve Dawson
Lousie Brown
Mark Flemming
John Blaney
To be continued any help or contributions to fillin the gaps will be greatfully received. Use to feedback form below to contact the Author