History of 1st Winnington Scouts
1st Winnington Scouts goes back to 1920. It was started by a man called Tom Holland. He worked at ICI in Winnington and was a training manager responsible for the apprentices there. He lived with his brother in a terraced house Appleton Street. The Scout group was based at the Winnington Park School (now demolished) Boys Club, and remained here for 46 years. They were taught basic skills in First Aid, tying knots, and basic outdoor activities such as learning how to make and safely light a fire and cook on it, chop wood, select a good place to set up camp and erect a tent. Not much has changed in nearly 100 years as we still teach the same skills. At nearly all our Scout camps each patrol cooks their own food on camp fires, no gas required!
World War II
During the conflict, Leslie Worsley, who was an Assistant Scoutmaster for the group, was killed in action. He was a telegraphist in the British Navy and served aboard the Mine sweeping Trawler, HMS Tervani. Tervani was assigned to patrol and mine sweeping duties in the North African theatre. In the late evening of 7 February, she was towing the French water tanker Moy Mazout under escort of the RN trawlers Achroite and Arnold Bennett when she was torpedoed off Cape Bougaroni (Algeria) by the Italian U-Boat Platino. Tervani sank quickly, leaving only 2 survivors. Leslie was only 20 years old.
Dyserth 1956
In 1954 Tom decided to start another local Scout group at Marbury Park. The 1st Marbury was based in World War II Nissan huts on the very western edge of Marbury camp. During this time he was still involved with 1st Winnington. Tom retired from the Scout movement in 1961. 1st Winnington was then run by Alec Johnson and Don Robinson. Meanwhile 1st Marbury closed down in 1964, and as such the Winnington Scouts received a large donation of equipment.
1st Winnington Scout Hall, The Avenue.
The current building has been in use as a Scout Hall for nearly 50 years. It was opened by Lord Rochester & Tom Holland on Saturday 26th November 1966. Prior to that the hall did not exist and was used as a cricket pavilion. The group owns the building completely after buying it from ICI.
The Group Today
The group today currently runs 2 Beaver Colonies, 1 Cub Pack and 1 Scout Troop. It is run by a dedicated leader team and committee with most of the group having being brought up through the Scout movement themselves, and those that havn't soon catch up on all the experience.
In 2007 we celebrated the Scouting Centenary by taking part in a District celebration of 100 years of Scouting. As you can see not much has changed in 50 years.
Centenary Camp 2007
