The 25th Newsround Winter 2010 Volume1 Issue 2

Special points of interest:

There was an error in the last issue regarding our President Geoff Robinson He has in fact completed 66 years with the Group and not the 55 stated.

Sorry Geoff.

Did you know - Lord Robert Baden Powell was born on 22nd February 1857 and his wife Olave was born on 22nd February 1889.

Did you know - the first ever Scout Camp was held on Brownsea Island in 1907.

Did you know - Scouting for boys was first published in 1908 in six fortnightly parts.

Well-done to Jack Giles for submitting the winning name for our news letter. There were seventeen names put forward. Jack wins a £10 gift voucher to spend in the Birmingham Scout Shop.

FREEHOLD FUNDRAISING

Firstly a very big thank you to

everyone who has supported the

Fundraising from its inception in

April.

The Presidents Appeal was

generously supported and also

enabled the Group to re-

establish links with past

members and friends. We have

received several Grants and

Donations. There has also been a

wide range of Fundraising

events, from local allotment open

days to collecting scrap metal

and publishing the Group‟s first

Calendar.

However the most positive

outcome of the fundraising (with

the exception of the money) has

been the response from the

parents & guardians (of the

young people) who attended

meetings at the end of October,

where the G.S.L. explained the

overall situation regarding the

future options for the Group. A

request was made to all

attending to put forward

fundraising ideas and for

volunteers to put the ideas into

practice, many innovative

schemes were put forward & 20

plus parents offered to support

the events themselves. The

Group had a discussion group who

met to prioritise the fundraising

ideas and the next step is to

have a meeting with the

„volunteers‟ to put a fundraising

programme & timetable in place.

If you haven‟t volunteered its

NEVER too LATE!!

Discussions are still taking place

with various departments of

Birmingham City Council to

attempt to reduce the Freehold

cost and Grants etc are still

being applied for.

The Freehold Fundraising Group

thank everyone for their support

and wish you all a Very Happy

Christmas and Prosperous New

Year.

John Hale

Competition’sCompetition’sCompetition’s

£3800

April 2010

£50,000

New Group Web SiteNew Group Web SiteNew Group Web Site

www.25thbirmingham1stbeechesscouts.btck.co.uk

£3800.00

April 2010

£25,163.00 Dec 2010

Group Calendar

Now on Sale

£4-00 each Its not too late to place

an order. See any Leader

Fundraising and Social Events

100 Club Results

Family Skittles Night

We held our second skittles evening

of the year on Saturday 25th

September at the Pheasey Park Farm

Community Centre. The night was enjoyed by

everyone. Why not book your place on the next

one (date to be arranged) and come and join in

the fun.

Bag Packing On Saturday 23rd October, Parents

and members of the Group spent

the day bag packing at Tesco New

Oscott. A magnificent £954.15 was

raised. Well done to everyone.

BRMB Walkathon 2010

Members of the Group

in Brookvale Park

helping at the BRMB

Walkathon.

Raising £250 for the

Group

Draw for August 2010

1st (16) Mrs T Woloszyniuk

2nd (22) Miss C Hardy

3rd (55) Mr N Lockett

Draw for September 2010

1st (67) Mr K Hobson

2nd (27) Mrs D Hartshorn

3rd (18) Mr P Cashmore

Draw for October 2010

1st (45) Mr N Tonks

2nd (41) Mr R Adams

3rd (49) Mrs L Brown

Draw for November 2010

1st (78) Mrs A Heaven

2nd (18) Mr P Cashmore

3rd (25) Mrs P Fairbrother

David Swiers

I first met Dave Swiers while the Group were taking down the old Community Centre in Hassop Road, in August 1958. At the time Dave was a Senior Scout with Geoff Robinson and he eventually gained his Queen Scout Award. After helping with the Troop as a Young Leader, Dave became the Venture Scout Leader and was heavily involved in organising a 10 day camping trip for Scouts and Venture Scouts to the Orkneys and again helping to organise a trip to Luxembourg. He helped with the fundraising towards the cost of building our present Headquarters and for a time he was Group Secretary.

Dave, upon leaving school, went to work for HP Sauce as a driver where he met Maureen who became his wife in 1961. Subsequently, they had three children, Maxine, Martin and Malcolm, both the lads becoming Cubs and Scouts in the Group. When they first got married, David and Maureen lived in a caravan on Barr Beacon and then moved into his mother's former house in Booths Lane. During this time, he changed employers and went to work for the IMI. About 20 years ago he obtained a transfer to the ICI in

Yorkshire, where he passed away in Harrogate in August this year, after a twelve month illness. Dave and Maureen had a love of holidaying in France and his ashes will be scattered there by his family next year. Dave was a real larger than life character and you could not help but like him. Our thoughts are with his family. Skipper

Called to Higher Service

It is with great sadness we have to announce the recent passing of three people connected

with the Group.

Percy Birtwhistle It is with great sadness we have to announce the passing of Percy Birtwistle. Percy passed away on Tuesday, 23rd November 2010. Many years ago he was Akela with the Group and has been a lifelong supporter. He will be sadly missed. Our thoughts are with his family.

Lynn Iles Mum to Bruce one of our Explorer Scouts. Lynn passed away on 5th December after a long illness bravely fought. Our thoughts are with Jez and his family at this sad time.

Scouting Memories

I joined the 25th, aged 11 & half, in February

1944. the Troop met then at Aldridge Road

Senior Boys, (now Great Barr School). I

became a member of the Lion Patrol, later

becoming its APL & and then PL of the Eagle

Patrol. Later I was a founder member of the

Senior Scout Troop under Bosun, (there were

just two scouts at first), and we both went

on to gain our Bushmans Thong & King Scout

Badge, following Geoff's example. I was a

Rover Scout then Assistant Scout Master

and Scout Master with the Group. In total,

both with the 25th and with Groups in

Streetly, I spent over 30 happy and

memorable years, active in the Scout

movement and I am very pleased to still be in

contact with the Group.

One of the things that still stands out in my

mind is the "Troop Yell", I don't think its

used now, but it was a great rallying cry.

Similar to the Maori's Hakka, a greeting, a

challenge, a war cry! It was a troop bonding

call and a moral booster, and it would be

heard at camps, competitions, camp fires and

gang shows, where ever the Beeches were .

Most groups had their own yell and it seems a

shame if for some reason they have been

dropped.

The 25th's Troop yell as I remember it was:-

Here we are, Here we are,

Birmingham 25,

Shout it out, shout it out,

Show that we're alive,

Be Prepared ,

We are prepared,

The boy's who play the Game,

Blue and Blue, Blue and Blue

BEECHES is the NAME

B-E-E-C-H-E-S

BEECHES!

I wonder how many of the Old Scouts can

still remember it? I'm sure Geoff (Bosun)

will. but for me it brings back so many

memories.

On 4th February 1956 at Holy Name Catholic

Church Great Barr. I married Stella. Scouts

from the Group formed a Guard of Honour.

The service was at 09.00 and there was

frozen snow lying on the ground, It was very

cold that day. The Scouts were in their

uniform , they wore shorts and no jackets.

The members of the guard were, (front to

back), on the left; Peter Gittins & Tony

Toulouse, and on the right; Bill Perry, David

Swiers & Peter King. There should have been

six boys, but one scout named Walsh

(forgotten his christian name) had gone down

with Mumps on that day.

Don Ball

The Old Scout Hut

I joined the Beeches Scout Troop in 1950 (probably, since I was 11 in November) and Bosun put me in the Woodpecker Patrol, directing me to see the PL named ‘Carrot’. After someone kindly pointed him out I approached and asked ‘are you Carrot’? Wallop, I was on the floor with a monster PL looking down at me, ‘no one calls me Carrot’, he said. In those days we met in a hall at Beeches Road School and Woodpeckers turned out to be a good patrol with a good PL who everybody called Carrot. I’m afraid I’ve forgotten his first name (ask Geoff) but his surname was Craddock and Mrs Craddock allowed us to keep the camping equipment in an Anderson air-raid shelter at the bottom of her garden. Actually the air-raid shelter would have been buried in the garden during the war but afterwards everyone dug them up and used them as garden sheds. (Have a look to see if there are any still in use, on the allotments perhaps).

Sometime during the 50’s we built an extension on Mrs Craddock’s shed using old packing cases and considerable skill from Geoff. We didn’t use old orange boxes, we used car packing cases. In those days Britain was a major car manufacturer and exported cars far and wide and these would be shipped in large substantial wooden packing cases. Geoff ‘obtained’ some packing cases and we dismantled them using heavy duty nail extractors and so acquired thick planks of wood. The completed Scout Hut was probably about 9 feet square (ask Geoff) but size didn’t matter – it was our den. Of course the troop continued to meet at the school, but the PL’s and APL’s had somewhere they could meet other than troop night.

The hut had a small cast iron stove and of course we had a great time. I remember having sausage and mash suppers there, and sometimes we blocked the chimney in order to

fill the place with smoke so we could practice rescuing a victim (old carpet wrapped round a log). The blindfolded rescuer would cover his face with a wet cloth and crawl close to the floor in order to search for the victim who could be pulled out with the rescuer astride but with their face near the floor. Don’t forget 10 years earlier it would have been common experience to rescue people from burning buildings. We did a lot of first aid with instruction from the Civil Defence.

I consider my self fortunate to be born when I was (1939). By 1950 many young people (like Carrot) were experienced with the reality of life; they could lead young wet-behind-the-ears people (like me) and were good Scouts. Also war surplus ‘stuff’ was available for any hobby, camping equipment, pioneering equipment, electronics, anything – at pocket money prices. And most of all huge optimism about the future, rebuilding the Nation, new houses, schools, libraries, swimming pools, parks and so on.

The old Scout Hut has probably gone now, but it was in Wingfield Road just over the fence from the present Beeches Scout HQ.

P.S. What about health and safety – you are all thinking. Well don’t forget our milk at home was still delivered by horse and cart (albeit a smart horse), the canals were still in use with horse drawn barges, miners were dying of lung disease, asbestos was in common use, there was no such thing as an MOT test for vehicles and the NHS had barely got into its stride. There were many tall factory chimneys churning out thick smoke that would sometimes envelop the city with smog (a mixture of smoke and fog). The smog would be so thick you could not see. Of course there were plenty of good things as well. Colin Richardson

Yorkswood 1956

Mrs Craddock’s Shed

Colin

Can anyone name the other three boys

Hi all

My name is James Tonks and as you may know, Misha

Woloszyniuk and I have been selected to go to the

World Scout Jamboree in Sweden 2011, along with

Nicole Farrell who is going with International

Service Team (IST).

For any of you that do not know what a Jamboree is;

it is a large camp of scouts from all over the world

gathering in one place for 10 – 14 days.

Misha and I are from the Birmingham County Scouts

and we have been selected to go with Scouts and

Explorer Scouts from across Birmingham, however,

Misha and I are in different units.

Misha is part of a joint unit made up of 18

Explorers/Scouts and 2 Leaders from Birmingham

and 18 Explorers/Scouts and Leaders from ,British

Scouts of Western Europe. (BSWE)

In my unit there are 36 Explorers/Scouts and 4

leaders (all from Birmingham) . I can tell you a lot

about my unit but I can not say much about the joint

unit. We have been meeting since January 2010 with

the emphasis on building a unit which works

together well and will be a credit while

representing Scouting from our Groups, Districts,

County and the UK at such as prestigious event.

During our time together we have held two weekend

camps with activities, that have included:

Rafting

Pioneering

Orienteering

Tent Pitching

Team building

Cooking

Getting to know each others strengths and

weaknesses

As part of the Jamboree, there has to be the IST,

(International Service Team). Nicole has been has

been selected for IST and her jobs could include:

Cleaning toilets

Providing food

Looking after visitors

The list is endless

Each of us has to raise on average £1900 and my

fundraising has included:

A sponsored swim

A Video Horse Race night

Car boot sales

And numerous bag packing events in the

Birmingham area at local supermarkets.

This Jamboree I am sure will be a life changing

experience for me and I am looking forward to the

training events that will be occurring next year.

I am proud to be representing my Group, District

and County at the 22nd World Scout Jamboree and

would like to thank everybody who has supported me

during this past year.

The group website is to be launched in December

2010 and I will use this site to keep you up to date

of what is happening in the lead up to the 2011.

Jamboree James Tonks

(Explorer Scout, Beeches Scouts and participant

going to the World Scout Jamboree)

Joint Guide and Scout Weekend on Tuptonia

What better way can there be of demonstrating teamwork in action! We set off on a sunny Friday evening - there was great excitement as most of the 4 Guides and 4 Scouts had never been on a narrow boat before and certainly did not have any experience at manning the locks. However, following a steep learning curve, they all soon started to get to grips with what they had to do ! We soon got from Swallow Cruisers to Kingwswood Junction and moored up for the night. It was a great experience and a novelty for everyone when it came to going to bed in their small cabins. By Saturday morning everyone was raring to go and we spent the day going through Hatton flight and part way back, where we moored for the night. On Sunday, we did the rest of the journey back to Swallow Cruisers. The Guides and Scouts were in pairs (one of each) and then in two teams. They worked hard and enthusiastically all weekend, manning the locks and each taking a turn at steering the boat - some of them were quite experts by the end of the weekend. Overall, we went through 80 locks - a great achievement for a primarily novice crew. There were several very complimentary comments from members of the public about our crew, which were all very encouraging for them. The Guides and Scouts all had a fantastic time despite the hard work and they all worked exceptionally well together - staying with their partners for the whole weekend. Not once did we hear a moan or a cross word between them. When all 8 were together there was constant happy laughter.

Some of the comments from them were ‘ I really enjoyed the narrow boat trip because opening the locks was fun but really hard work ’, ‘ It was good when we got to steer the boat ’, ‘I enjoyed mixing with the Scouts as I made lots of friends ’, ‘ We worked well together as a team ’, ‘ I liked to sleep on the boat ’ A weekend on Tuptonia is a superb way of demonstrating teams working together and is a really successful joint venture for Guides and Scouts - this is the sixth successive year that we have done it and the Guides and Scouts really look forward to when it is their chance to go. They are selected by good attendance both at Unit meetings and activities away from the Unit meeting place. Thank you to the Scout Leaders, Derek and Brian and to Sue Nunn, who worked to ‘Make It Happen’! Linda Bateman

A Weekend Narrow Boat Trip 2nd - 4th July

I would like to say a Big THANK YOU to Skip, Tiny and the Girl Guide leaders Linda and Sue for a super weekend spent on TUPTONIA narrow boat, It is something I will always remember because we had a great time There were 4 scouts and 4 guides and we were divided into two teams where we worked together on opening the locks as we travelled along the canal which was hard work We were a ll given the opportunity to drive the boat (with Skips help of course) and had to concentrate on keeping it in a straight line The weather was hot and sunny until we went through a cold dark narrow tunnel that had water dripping down the walls , we were all glad to come back out into the sunshine I would also like to thank Linda for cooking us delicious meals , I loved the Apple pie From Jack Giles

Q. What did one snowman say to another

A. Can you smell carrots.

Q. What goes “oh, oh, oh?

A. Santa walking backwards

Dingbats

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Answers on back page

Christmas Quiz

1. It is a tradition to decorate an evergreen tree at Christmas time. In which country is this

tradition believed to have begun

2. Which member of the Royal Family was responsible (in the 1890s) for starting the tradition in

England of displaying a Christmas Tree

3. Which country gives the gift of a Christmas tree to the UK every year.

4. In 1914 during WW1 English and German troops agreed an informal truce on Christmas Day.

Which sport did they play in “no-mans –land”

5. Father Christmas is also known as St Nicholas. As well as being the Patron St of children. St

Nicholas is also the Patron Saint of sailors. True or False

6. In the Twelve Days of Christmas, how many maids were milking.

7. In the story “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, what is the name of Scrooge‟s dead

business partner.

8. What fruit is used to make a traditional Christingle.

9. What did Tom Smith invent way back in 1847 that is still commonly used at Christmas Time.

10. In England, Christmas celebrations were banned between 1647 and 1660 to ensure that it was

a quite religious time. Which famous figure in English history is commonly associated with this

ban. Answers on back page

Dates for your Diary 2011

5th March Jumble sale

10th January Group Exec

21st February Group Exec

4th April Group Exec

1. Neon Lights

2. Potatoes 3. The Three Musketeers 4. Dominoes

5. Criminal 6. Long time no see 7. Dr Doolittle

8. Put the past behind you 9. Fork in (the) road

10. Kiss and makeup 11. Frank Sinatra 12.Glance Backwards

13. The Aftermath 14. Foreign Language 15. Clean Underwear

16. Missing Link 17. 1 step forward 2 steps back

Dingbat answers

DASHER

COMET

RUDOLF

DANCER

CUPID

RED NOSE

PRANCER

DONNER

SANTA

VIXEN

BLITZEN

SLEIGH

W L I T Z E N F O A S A N T A

F M T X W A L P D X Z E A T I

Q D M X T R E D N O S E W V T

Z V N D R D Q W G K J H N G T

C D R O D S L E I G H B S X D

W A Y N O K L B S P I D E I N

V G L N L Y A R Q A S Z P V L

V I X E N P M U G J A U G B N

K I T R X W B D C U C W A P L

T N P G A D P O G F V O M D R

E Z L A D A N L L R E D M P S

L H B C F N R F I L Z Q S E A

G F F O A C F H H G D E G A T

I R R U H E H C R A Y F I C R

D A S H E R U G R E C N A R P

Reindeer Word search

Scout Section Dates

Sat,22nd Feb District Orienteering 18th--20th Feb Troop Winter Camp, Patshull Wed.16th Mar District Bowling Sat. 9th April County Rifle Shooting

1. Germany

2. Prince Albert

3. Norway

4. Football

5. True

6. Eight

7. Jacob Marley

8. An orange

9. Christmas Crackers

10. Oliver Cromwell

Christmas Quiz Answers