Our history

The History of All Saints Birkenhead Scout Group

The formation of the All Saints Birkenhead Scout group was due the efforts of the Rev.J.E.Hulme of the All Saints Church, who along with Mr.H. Townshend and Mr. and Mrs Bert and Edit Bray who with number of others were responsible for starting the Wolf Cub Pack in 1953.

On Saturday, September 12th of that year at 10:30am the first meeting of boys was held in the All Saints Church Hall, Hinemoa Street. Soon after, the initial 9 boys were invested as wolf cubs.

The original Cub Master was Mr. Basil Potter who was assisted by Mr. Naill Paterson and Mrs. Mayrice Denvers.

Interest grew and at 7:30am on Tuesday 5th April 1954 a Scout Troop was started with 5 boys. Mr Paterson left Cub Pack to be our fist Scout Master.

The Group continued to grow in numbers and success until some twelve years after starting , it relocated its meeting place form the All Saints Church Hal, to its newly constructed, purpose built, Scout Headquarters, some 2 km away, situated, on land leased from the Birkenhead Council, in the War Memorial Park, off Birkenhead Avenue.

The Scout Hall (still in use today) was constructed over a 12 month period, throughout 1965 by Mr Bert Evans and a small number of parents working most weekend and was funded in the main by the Cubs and Scouts themselves. Bert Evans Hall.

During the month of September 1974, the Group celebrated its 21st Anniversary with a Group Hangi.  Those present included the Birkenhead M.P. (and long time supporter of Scouting) Mr. Norm, King, members of the District Council and many of the original Scouts and Cubs.

In 1974 and 1975 we briefly operated a Venturer Unit for the first time and while it only lasted for 2 years with 6 members, we have always been proud that in the November of 1975, our first 2 Queens Scouts Awards were presented.

As part of the 1976-1977 development of the War memorial Park complex which include the establishment of the Harvey Wright Sports fields, the Birkenhead Borough Council requited tht the Scout Den be moved back some 30 feet to enable the construction of the Recreation Drive.

The cost of this move, together with the construction of the block base, now required to support the building was once again born mainly by the group and the overall disruption that it caused to the Cubs and Scouts very nearly resulted the closure of the group.

Through this mover we gained a large garage and QM store (although it was not until the early 80’s before the concrete floor was laid and the store room lined) but we did lose the Venturer room which was once joined to the North side wall.  All that is left of that room is what is now, the fire escape doorway.

KEAS:

We formed our first Kea Cub I late 1981. It originally ran on Thursday afternoon from 4:15 to 5:15pm but moved to Monday in late 1990.  The Cub was closed for 1996.  It ran again from 1997 to 2001. It closed again for 2002. Re-opening 2003 to 2005.  After a 4 year closure it was final re-formed in late 2009 on a Monday night from 5:00pm to 6:00pm. Under strong leadership its popularity and continued success was resulted in the need to split the Club so that a second Club night can operate on Thursday from 5:15pm to 6:15pm.

VENTURERS:

Venturers restarted in April 1982 & operated until 1998 and then after a brief 12 month hiatus from 1999 t 2014.  Meeting nights have fluctuated between Sundays in the early years to, more recently, Tuesday evenings (there was a brief period in the early 2000’s when very low number dictated that the Venturers combined with Scouts on Wednesday evening until membership increase again) but meetings have always between 7:00pm – 9:00pm  After a 2 year closure we reopened at the start of last year (2017) as part of the the Mahurangi South Combined Unit operating out of the Forrest Hill Scout Den, but as of November 2017 they came “back home” to the All Saints den.  At present we continue to operate with the Zone Combined Unit but number and inters continue to grow.

During its history 137 boys and girls have been invested into our Unit and of them a total of 17 have completed and achieved their Queens Scouts Award. Scouting’s highest Award. (12.4%)

CUBS

In 1978 we had 2 Cub Packs – Arawa meeting on Mondays and Takatimu on Thursdays. In 1982 the Tainui Pack opened on Friday’s.  Tainui merged with Takatimu in early 1985 and they in turn finally closed in September 1992.

The Arawa Pack continue by itself until it grew in size and split in mid 2015.  So once again the group is running 2 packs.

Running time has always been 90 minutes with meeting time usually been 6:45pm to 8:15pm however some variations and trail changes have occurred from time to time.

SCOUTS

The Scout Troop operated Tuesday evenings, 7:00pm to 9:00pm until 1971 when it transferred to a similar time slot on Wednesdays.

Due to growth in numbers we split the Troop on 2nd April 1985 runnign the Turei Troop on Tuesday and Wenerei Troop on Wednesday.  The 2 troops merged back onto Wednesdays the following year, may 1986.

As an aside, the Manuere Air Scout Group formed on the 29 July 1982 and operated a Cub pack and a Scout Troop fro the All Saints Birkenhead Church Hall as we had ouselve 29 years earlier.  They successfully ran for 4 years before droping numbers and lack of leaders caused closure.

We merged with Manurere in August 1986, and ran the 2 toops – land and Air – until December 1988. This year (30years earlier) we are again re forming an air Scout Troop – manurere Troop, named memory of our historical link to Air Scouts, will run on Tuesdays and Onewa Trrop, named after our old District of 25+ years, will stay on Wednesdays.

As with many, community based volunteer organisations much of our records have lost over the years. What I can say with certainty is that between January 1979 and January 2018 (39 years) a total of 484 boys and girls have attended Scouts at All Saints Birkenhead and of them 58 have achieved their Chief Scouts Award. (11.98%)

In October 1988 the group held a month long celebration of activities to mark its 35 anniversary.  And then again in October 2003 the group recognised it Golden Anniversary with the addition of a gold strip the group scarf.

For those of yu good at maths you will have calculated that September of this year (2018) 65 years will have passed since our foundation (for what it’s worth that a “Blue Sapphire” anniversary). Nothing is planned for that yet as far as I know….just saying!