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Issue No 590 _

SUMMER 2016

ESTUARY DISTRICT BEAVER DABBLE DAY MARCH 5TH 2016

The usual suspects accumulated at Rowhedge Village Hall on Saturday March 5 th. This was going to be a special day when the District Beavers were all together to start celebrating the 30 anniversary of beavers.

We were lucky enough to have Sir Bob Russell present to enjoy the tea for the first part of this year’s 30th celebrations. With a district fun day to follow on the 26th June at Thorrington camp site and also a district birthday sleepover in October, it’s looking like a fun year for beavers. The Beavers were all prepared to start the crafts that they were dabbling with this year; decorating party cups, plates and even a table cloth that went the whole length of the hall, which they later ate their tea off. There were also biscuits to ice, paper candles and holders to make for the outsize artifi-cial cake (made before the event) and many other crafts to keep them busy.

The tea was provided by the colonies; all bringing sufficient to feed their own section numbers, and then shared between all there. The 5,000 would have done well here. To top it off each colony had brought a birthday cake with their group col-ours on it. Sir Bob blew out the candles of one of the cakes with the help of the children and great cheering came from all.

The Beavers had signed a paper facsimile of their group scarf and put their group name/number on them before sticking them on the side of the very large (inedible) cake mentioned earlier. An enjoyable party time was had by all and a great start to the 30th birthday celebrations of 2016. The children were also able to sign off on some of the 30 challenges set by Essex scouting. So here is to the next 30 years for Beavers. An Estuary Beaver leader

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COLCHESTER NORTH DISTRICT BEAVERS

Over 70 Beavers celebrated the 30th Anniversary with a Sleepover at Hallowtrees Scout Camp in May. It was an action packed sleepover with many 30th Challenges being completed. The Beavers took part in Human Football, Den Building, Navigational Skills, Built newspaper bridges, Nature Trails at lots more. The Event was marked with a new badge for the Beavers to wear with pride designed by Zackary Mills from 1st Stanway.

The DC came along to do Scouts Own with the Beavers on their 30th Anniver-sary Camp and did a little sing song too and presented their Sleepover Badges, and he didn’t bring the rain!! All around the District colonies are completing their 30th Challenges. 8th Colchester Red Deer Beavers would like to wish everyone a happy 30th birthday and send you photo’s of their 30th anniversary collages - sorry about the quality of the photos but per-haps we should have let the Beavers take them!

Collages were made from items collected on the nature trail, human football was played and there was loads of den building helped by Colin Embleton & Sam Edwardson from 1st Horkesley.

Sue, Jason, Pam, Tavia, Sam, Rikki and Byron

2nd LEXDEN & 1st TENDRING

8th COLCHESTER THE SING SONG COLLAGES

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1ST MYLAND 35TH COLCHESTER 60TH ANNIVERSARY

On Saturday 14th May the 1st Myland Scout Group celebrated its 60th anniversary with an open event from 2-5pm which allowed people to come along and stay for a short time or the whole afternoon whichever they chose. Invites were sent out to ex members and as many other people who we thought may be interested. We had no idea how many people would come along, The Scout Band came along and played three, twenty minute sessions during the afternoon this was enjoyed by all. We were extremely pleased and lucky that Foun-der member Sir Bob Russell had invited the UK Chief Commissioner Wayne Bulpitt, who was in town for an-other event, to come along. Wayne was introduced to some group members who had helped to get the parish halls ready, he also had a look at some of the photographs and memorabilia we had set out, he also signed the visitor book.

The afternoon turned out to be a very busy one with people dropping in from the local area and from as far as West Dul-wich, South London & Harleston, Norfolk. They came for a chat and to browse through the large collection of photo-graphs and memorabilia that was on display, some going right back to the early days and some more up to date, this was loaned by members & ex members of the group. Tea Coffee and cake was freely available throughout the after-noon.

The event was a huge success we even had about a dozen ex members that were Cubs and Scouts in the in the late 50's and early 60's Including a Chelsea Pensioner in his bright red coat came along and had a great time reliving old memories chatting to old friends and making new ones. Bill Miller Group Scout Leader 1st Myland Scout Group

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J.O.T.A 2016 Hopefully you will have all received an email to tell you the details of this event ??? ( you need an email on Compass to get this ). There is limited availability and some slots are already booked so PLEASE.............BOOK NOW. If you need details or have a query Please mail or call me Richard Hudson JOTA organiser . Ltm.colchesternorth@essexscouts.org.uk 01206 841746

BILL SHOWS WAYNE THE MEMORABILIA

A PROUD GROUP

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CUBS CELEBRATE CUBS100

The last few weeks have been very busy for Cubs in Colchester. Many packs have lots of events planned and as a district we have already celebrated in style! Our first event was on May 14

th and was held at the Garrison Athletics

track. It was part of a day arranged by Sir Bob Russell who had personal invited the UK Chief Commissioner, Wayne Bulpitt. Cubs were invited from every pack in Colchester across both Districts. We had 30 cubs attend and work their way around different challenges, all linked to the Essex Cubs 100 centenary challenges. From identifying map sym-bols, building a tower from midget gems and cocktail sticks to making a long length of strawberry laces knotted to-gether and having a snowball fight, all the Cubs had a great action packed few hours.

We then move to the main event on June 11

th. This

was a day organised for the Area (which comprises 4 districts: Colchester North, Colchester Estuary, Ten-dring and Halstead & Colne Valley) by the ADCs and has been 2 years in the planning. The day was part of a countywide celebration for Cubs 100. The ad-ventures started early with all Cubs arriving at Thor-rington on buses. After a scavenger hunt, the open-ing ceremony started the day's celebrations with per-sonalised cakes for those with birthdays on or near the day. Wayne Bulpitt and the county Cub team joined us for the morning. A large grand howl was lead by Bill Miller (ADC Col. North) and had nearly 400 Cubs taking part. Then onto the activities. The Thorrington warden team exceeded themselves again running the tower for abseiling and climbing as well as the zip wire and we had a great team running

the archery lead by Jacqui Archard. The Scout Band excelled playing whilst people arrived and then played the Cubs Centenary song, before running a band workshop as one of the bases. Then each of the districts ran a number of bases. We had backwoods cooking, fire lighting, water rockets, tent pitching, welly wanging, various craft activities, tracking and boomerang making to name a few! Each Cub had a passport for the day and gained stamps for each activity they completed. There were many happy smiling faces, both from Cubs and leaders throughout the day. Sir Bob joined us for the afternoon and in good spirit, he took part in some of the events; he is quite good at welly wanging! Before we knew it, the closing ceremony was upon us. This saw a team of fire-eaters entertaining us, followed by campfire lead by Kevyn Connelly and his team. And as the buses returned to collect the Cubs, the site became quiet again. I would like to thank everybody who made this event a success, from the teams at Thorrington, every leader who ran a base, to the Cubs and leaders who came and had fun, but especially the ADC team for all their hard work and dedication to the event and the DCs for their support. Thank you. With the celebrations set to continue, we look forward to continuing our work at Castle Park. The flower display is set to be unveiled for Cubs100 on Saturday 25

th June and you will be able to see it along with the Bee Trail during the

summer. Thanks to Louise from 1st Colchester for arranging this, and the Cubs and leaders that have taken part so far

either planting or painting hives. I look forward to more celebrations with the Cubs, with many packs soon to go on their summer camps. Lets see how many Centenary Challenges can be completed and how much birthday cake can be eaten! Liz Connelly

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COLCHESTER NORTH DISTRICT CUBS

As ADC Cubs, I knew 2016 was going to be a busy year; we kicked off with the sleepover in the Town Hall in January. This was followed by Cubs 100 at Colchester United, where over 130 Cubs and almost 30 leaders/adults invaded the Weston Homes Community Stadium for a day of fun and Football .

The day started off with a five a side football tournament followed by activities in Eddies Nest (Eddie the Eagle is the club mascot). Then it was into the stadium to watch the match, unfortunately the result did not go our way.

Some of the Cubs were chosen randomly to shadow the following club officials before and during the game, Kit Man, Steward, Match reporter, Club photographer, and Groundsman. All the packs attending paraded their flags before the game. Everyone said that they had a great time.

In March we had exciting news because Colchester Cubs won the bid for Castle Parks flower badge border this year. This is an exciting opportunity to work with the park team on a large community project as it not only includes the plant-ing of flower borders but also working on building a Bee Trail around upper Castle Park the Cubs had the opportunity to design the artwork for the beehives and also to paint their designs on them. This is an ongoing project with a grand opening on June 25th. May 14th Saw the UK Chief Commissioner Wayne Bulpitt, visit Colchester to unveil a plaque to commemorate Robert Baden- Powell being stationed in Colchester between 1886 and 1887. President of Colchester Scouts Sir Bob Russell

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then accompanied Wayne Bulpitt to see Cubs from both districts enjoying a skills day performing challenges from the Cubs 100 challenges. Then on to the Big One Cubs 100 celebration Event at Thorrington! The event was organised by a team of ADC's from the 4 districts in the Colchester area as part of Essex County Cub Scouts birthday celebrations to mark 100 years of Cub Scouting. The event was a huge success, with around 400 Cubs plus leaders and helpers being bussed into Thorrington from the districts in the Colchester area including Colchester North, Colchester Estuary, Tendering, and Halstead and Colne Valley. The day started with the various packs being wel-comed By DC Dave Humphrey and myself we called out the names of the packs attending and asked them to shout back to us, this also served to ensure that all the packs had arrived. Then special guest UK Chief Commissioner Wayne Bulpitt, said a few words of welcome and thanks to the organisers, he then presented Liz Connelly Cub Leader 1st Ardleigh and ADC Cubs Colchester Estuary with the Commissioners Commendation Award. Congratulations to her. Sharon Palmer ACC Cub Scouts presented birthday cakes to 2 Cubs and Lynn Scott Cub leader from Stanway Ford-ham, whose birthdays fell on or near the day. This was followed by a very large Grand Howl which I had been volun-teered to lead. The flag was then broken by Mackenzie Gray from 1st Weeley/Lt Clacton Cubs whose birthday it was. The Cubs then went on to join in at the large selection of activities that were planned for the day including the Thorring-ton based abseiling, climbing wall, zip wire, and archery, also all 4 districts had arranged to put on activities including tent pitching, backwoods cooking, blind trail, making woggles, and numerous other activities too many to mention. The Scout Band had a workshop running throughout the day where the Cubs could try their hand at playing the various in-struments. I think this sums the day up!! Wow! Fantastic, to see so many happy smiling faces throughout the day is the best reward we can ever hope for!! A big thank you to all supported the event including those who helped run bases and those who also brought their young people along and also ran bases!! Thank you to all the Thorrington Team. Plus a huge pat on the back to the organising team proud to have been a part of it. If you want the chance to discuss the things you want in your district, and have not yet attended a district meeting please feel free to come along. All pack leaders are notified about district meetings. If you help with a pack in North District and would like to be included on the email lists please email me with your details, name, email address, pack name and role in pack. Dates for your Diary. District Cub Camp 16

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th September at Bradfield Combust.

Promise Party Friday 16th December;

Bill Miller. ADC Cubs Colchester North.

7th COLCHESTER’S SUMMER TERM!

Phew... once again, the summer term has proved a long and adventurous one for 7th Colchester; and we’re not done

yet... There have been camps, a quiz, Gangshow, Cubs 100 Beehive Trail, DIY projects at Thorrington Scout Camp, a trip to Harwich beach and next, our AGM.

Early May saw our Scouts set off for Bures Camp Site for a week-end of kayaking in what proved to be, the summer of 2016... Twenty of our Scouts thoroughly enjoyed two days on the water in glorious sunshine, whilst planning and preparing their own meals and rising to some tough challenges such as pioneering and matchless fire-lighting. Mid-May saw the Group host its inaugural Family Quiz Night! Amongst parents, friends, f am i l y an d neighbours, we

reduced Colchester Rugby Club to standing room only in what was a hugely successful and enjoyable evening. Through the kindness of local businesses, we even managed to raise £326 for the Group via a raffle on the night.

KAYAKING AT BURES

THE QUIZ WINNERS

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Mid-June saw the Group hold a Minecraft themed Group Camp at Thorrington Camp Site welcoming young people from across all three sections – Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. Despite a damp start, the week-end proved to be an extremely enjoyable and challenging event whereby all sections were able to enjoy a range of activities together (climbing, abseiling, bouldering, badge design, adventure run, archery, cross-bows, 3D maze and the aerial runway). Our thanks to Wes and his warden team! There’s still much to come as our Cubs plan to hike part of the Wivenhoe Trail and Scouts cycle it.

Mid-July, will see us hold our AGM at St John’s School where amongst the usual obligatories, we will celebrate another year of growth and success with a BBQ, bouncy castle and games with the young people and supporting parents of 7

th Colchester Scout Group.

We are blessed with an enthusiastic and dedicated leader team and executive committee; on behalf of the entire Group, I would like to ex-press my heartfelt thanks to them. Happy Scouting Ian (Grizzly) Whitty 7

th Colchester GSL

CUBS CENTENARY LOGO IN CASTLE PARK Here are 2 photos of the floral arrangements in Castle Park which feature the achieve-ment of reaching 100 years of Cub Scouting in UK. The flowers in the border depicting the bee hive are very pretty and the logos will be seen by thousands of passers-by. Go have a look for yourself. Mike Francis

NEWS FROM THORRINGTON

Site bookings continue to do well, and you really need to plan ahead if you want to use any of our indoor accommoda-tion. We have received an inquiry this week for a booking in March 2018! On the down side, unfortunately we have also had an increase in the number of "no shows" or very late cancellations, which is not helpful. The other matter which I would like to bring to your attention is the increase in the number of Groups that do not have the means with them to pay the bill at the end of their stay. Also groups who disappear off site before having a building or campsite inspected. Some also leave site without attempting to settle the bill. Please help us by settling the bill by noon on the day of departure, and by asking the Warden Team for a building or site inspection prior to leaving the site. That is an end to the pinpricks - now for the pats: Thank you to the 7th Colchester Scouts and Leaders who spent an extremely useful evening tidying the chapel, remov-ing barrow loads of leaves, & weeds and painting the fencing. (see photo over page). When Evelyn Sibley, one of Estu-ary SAS team who makes sure that there are fresh flowers in the Chapel area over the summer camping season, ar-rived on the following Friday she was amazed at the transformation. Thank you to Legacy ESU who did some stream clearance while they were in camp in June.

THORRINGTON CAMP

CONQUERING THE WALL

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And also a big thank you to Phil Sweeting (7th Colchester) who once again organised a group of 19 Essex County Council employees who were allowed time to volunteer to work on site for a day in the middle of June. In that day they worked hard and achieved a fantastic amount of painting, tidying and cleaning in spite of it being a very rainy day. (see Photo of the group) The bridge to Top Field has now become usable, although there are still some finishing touches to be completed. How-ever it does mean that Top Field, Oak, Hurricane, Springfield & Hill sites are more accessible. The TMC is currently putting together a three year plan to take the site forward to 2019. A priority is to rebuild the main toilet block. We have plans about what we want to achieve, but as usual raising the considerable amount of money needed is going to be a challenge. Please get in touch with any ideas you might have. Finally

THORRINGTON MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE invites you to attend our

2016 AGM to be held on Tuesday, July 12th

at Alpha House Thorrington Scout Camp

starting at 8pm

Please come along and share our successes of the past year and our plans for the future

Mary Francis Chairman TMC Tel: 01206 330286 e-mail: thorringtonscoutcamp@yahoo.com

COLCHESTER ESTUARY DISTRICT SCOUT ACTIVE SUPPORT UNIT Traditionally our meeting in June is always a picnic at Thorrington, and this year was no exception, although the weather was unsuitable for outdoor activity so we retreated to the Hayvern building instead. Despite the weather 24 members attended, tucked in to the food they brought along to share and had a good natter. We have been pleased to help “out front”at the Gang Show and look forward to the following programme events: July 6

th My Mayoral Year by Helen Chuah

September 7

th Tanzanian Experience by Lauren Nolan

October 5

th An Audience With Sir Bob Russell

We would welcome any visitors who would like to attend these talks, which are held at 34

th HQ, Shrub End Road at

7.30pm. So if you are interested do come along! Michael Francis

THE ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL VOLUNTEERS

THE 7th COLCHESTER WORK IN THE CHAPEL

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JAMBOREE ON THE TRAIL

Estuary district JOTT had 182 ‘Jotters’ plus mums; dads; siblings; grandparents; dogs trekking round the Friday Woods area. No rain – again. Sadly I was not fit enough to go along so I just took the money, sent them off and legged it to the garrison in time to see the BP plaque unveiled. The excess (£243.00) from JOTT went to Water Aid this time – As part of ‘A Million Hands’ SA projects for 2016. Unfortunately I had to cancel the District Raft Races this year. Apologies to the few who had entered but numbers were too low for it to work and the likely workload for me, with health issues, was too much. If I kill myself for one event you won’t get any more. See you at Junior Backwoods, Karts; Survival Training. Tony Jay

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Sept 9th/10th & 11th – Estuary district Cub 100 Junior Backwoods Camp at TSC. Entries to TJ (tony.jay2@ntlworld.com) please. An email has gone out to all cub leaders. Sept 17th – Estuary district scout and explorer Kart Races – venue uncertain at time of press. Full info out soon as I know venue. (tony.jay2@ntlworld.com) Oct 8th/ 9th – Estuary district Scout Survival Training at TSC. Entries to TJ (tony.jay2@ntlworld.com) by Sept 24th please. Oct 21st/ 22nd & 23rd – Estuary district beaver sleepovers at TSC. Details from ADC Beavers.

TO GO OR NOT TO GO THAT IS THE QUESTION On the evening of the 21st June (only just in time for P & P) Endeavour ESU had a referendum meeting with Will Quince. He stayed for well over a hour and the youngsters, split into Stay and Leave teams, asked many pertinent ques-tions which Will covered. The kids enjoyed it and I believe he did too. TJ

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COLCHESTER GANG SHOW 2016

I would like to say a big thank you to all the people that came and once again supported the Colchester Gang-show from the 16th – 18th June at the Mercury Theater. Over 1150 people came to watch the Cubs, Brownies, Scouts, Guides, Explorers and Leaders from around the Colchester area perform “It’s a Kind of Magic”. From a Wizard and his Fairies to and Evil Queen it had every-thing to keep you entertained. Every 5 years each Gangshow across the country is assessed to ensure that they meet the Scout Associa-tions requirements to put on a show and allowing them to keep the important Red scarf, everything from the performance itself to the business committee and yes that does include all them Risk assessments and Health and safety policies..!!! I am pleased to announce that the Colchester Gangshow have maintained their high standard and will keep their status for another 5 years

Following this year’s show our new Directors will be taking a break and we are cur-rently looking for a new Director/s to fill that role. If you have an idea for a show and would be interested please contact me via the Facebook page or directly on 07948374427 If you missed the show we still have the DVD on sale, just visit our Facebook page for more details Thank you all again for your support and see you all again next year Adrian Brown Gangshow Chairman

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COLCHESTER NORTH After all the fine weather in March, the changeable weather in April and May and the extreme weather in June, the camping season will soon be in full swing and we will all be out enjoying the great outdoors. I have been pleased to see that a number of groups have been doing their housekeeping and sorting out the stores in preparation for what we all hope will be a cracking summer. Just on the horizon is the Essex International Jamboree that I know a number of you are participating in. If you are not attending the whole event, please do consider taking your young people on a visit to the open day. This is an excellent opportunity for the young people to experience the unique atmosphere of a jamboree and take part in many of the activi-ties and entertainments on offer at an international event. This is an excellent introduction to international Scouting and as I am writing this, we are teetering on the brink of leaving Europe and should this happen, I wonder what the effect will be on Scouting. I guess we will soon be finding out. Or not! As we hopefully head into warmer weather, we also head into AGM season. I know that these are hardly the most inter-esting part of scouting, but it is an important part of the business side of what we do and it can be an opportunity to in-volve all young people and adults associated with a group. I have received a number of invitations already and in con-junction with Liz, Nigel and Bob we will endeavour to be representing the District where we can. Having had a really good day at the Cubs100 Event at Thorrington a few weeks ago, I hope that your local celebrations

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of this milestone are going well. Also, we must not forget that the Beavers are 30 years old this year and it was great to be able to visit the District Sleepover at Hallowtree and see the young people having fun. Last week I was thoroughly entertained by the Gang Show. The production team were really able to bring out the talent in the cast with the amusing storyline and giving everyone a moment to shine. Well done everyone. We have some great scouting taking place in Colchester which would not happen without our volunteers at all levels. Liz, Nigel, the District Executive and myself will do what we can to provide all the support you require. Have a great summer. Liz Welch – Deputy District Commissioner Nigel Ballard - Deputy District Commissioner Dave Humphrey – District Commissioner

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Another little extract from the December 1941 edition of P & P which sounds rather familiar.

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Again many thanks to all contributors to this edition of P & P and to everyone who supplied the excellent

photos.

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Please note - this is the LAST date by which articles should be received, not the date to start preparing them.

Editor: Bob Wopling, Collator: Owen Hay Address: 2 Gorse Way, Stanway CO3 0QP Address: 13 Gorse Way, Stanway CO3 0QP Tel: 01206 330463 Mobile 07719646811 Tel 01206 330401 robert.wopling@btinternet.com o.hay@ntlworld.com

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