Group Heritage

1955

On 9th February 1955 the Sunday School Council of Maghull Methodist Church, Merseyside, recommended to the Leaders Meeting that a Cub Pack be formed and so Wyn Houston started our Scout Group by starting the first Wolf Cub Pack with 9 boys, and became our first "Akela" We were part of the Ormskirk, West Lancashire, District and called 28th Ormskirk, 4th Maghull

Wyn Houston Pictured with the original registration document.

During the first year the cubs raised money to buy a flag by collecting jam jars and by selling Wyn's rhubarb, lettuce and tomatoes. By St George's day 1956 they were able to proudly carry their new flag through the streets of Ormskirk. The Boy Scouts Association membership was 500 000 World Scout Membership was 6.3 million.

1957

Jubilee year of scouting, the scout troop was formed starting with 4 boys. Cubs lost a football match against the 1st Maghull Pack - Akela said the cubs had not yet learnt that the ball had to be kicked.

1966

Wolf Cubs were renamed Cub Scouts.

1967

Boy Scout Section was renamed Scout Section. There were changes in uniform. Venture Scout Section launched replacing Senior Scouts.

1969

Ken Walker became the Group Scout Leader.

1970

A second Cub Pack was formed with Kath Slater as Akela.

1972

Kath's husband Harold Slater became Scout Leader. During all this time the Group Council - committee of parents and leaders raised money to equip the group by Jumble Sales Waste paper collections and a November Christmas Fair – the queues to visit Father Christmas stretched around the car park. Cubs used to visit the troops summer camp - once Akela told the cubs they could join the scouts swimming; unfortunately she forgot to tell them to take their uniforms off.

1976

Girls were allowed to join Venture Scouts.

1979

We were winners of the District Rifle Shooting Competition - the older scouts would go shooting in Stanley Park in Liverpool. At this time it was common for scouts to come to troop night with a knife and usually took one to camp.

1980

We celebrated our 25th anniversary.

1982

6 boys spent a weekend in Cheshire on a survival course to obtain their Backwoodsman badge. They had to build their own shelter and sleep out in it, pluck a pigeon, clean fish and cook them over a wood fire without utensils and survive for 48 hours.

1983

Colin Coleman was chosen to be one of the British Scout representatives at the World Jamboree in Canada - Colin later went on to become Cub Leader and work for the Distict and Merseyside Scout County. He is now the County Commissioner In 1995 another one of our scouts was sent to the World Jamboree in Holland

1985

A new Scout Training Programme was introduced.

1986

Beaver Scouts started.

1988

Summer camp was held near Betws-y-Coed, North Wales, in August. 5 scouts managed to survive the tricks played by the Ventures. The weather was mixed, when it was not raining everyone was covered in flies.

1989

Headgear was abolished for all Sections.

1991

The Royal Charter changes and girls are allowed to be invested. We asked the boys and they wanted girls to be part of our Scout Troop and so we became the first troop in Merseyside to include girls.

1997

The Group took over responsibility for the Church's Top Hall and put on a new roof, installed central heating, decorated inside, and fitted a new carpet with the help of leaders, parents and friends.

2005

Worldwide, the Movement now boasts nearly 28 million members in 216 countries. To celebrate our 50th anniversary we changed our neckerchief so it is still maroon but now has a yellow border. 

In September we attended a special 50th Anniversary Church Parade. On Friday 21st October we held a reunion of ex-leaders and scouts, about 80 attended, from as far as London and Scotland.

2007

21st World Jamboree - United Kingdom in Essex. In the last 25 years the group has achieved 18 Queen's Scout Awards, In the sixty's James Hall became our first Queen's Scout, 45 Chief Scout's awards, 30 Duke of Edinburgh awards. For the past 10 years we have supported the charity "The Romanian Challenge Camp" and have sent over 10 leaders/venture Scouts to Romania to work with and help to run camps for Romanian orphans. It began when a group of leaders from the Blackpool area watched the "Challenge Aneka" TV programme visit to a Romanian orphanage.