History of 1st Nailsea Scouts
We are really lucky at 1st Nailsea Scouts to have a wealth of historical records and heritage items, some dating back over one hundred years to the original founding of the group. This page provides a very brief history of 1st Nailsea. Over time, we are hoping to add to it, including through the creation of digital scans of some of our archival material, though unfortunately this is an immensely time consuming process and we are reliant on volunteers being willing to give their time to complete this enormous task. As scanned copies of this material are created, they will be added at the bottom of this page.
1920 - 1965
The group registration of 9243 became effective on 30th September 1920. At that time Nailsea was a small village with a population of just 1,900.
Initially meetings were held in the drill hall, now the Masonic lodge. However, the group quickly grew to three troops making the drill hall too small, plus noise was strictly prohibited making it difficult to train the Scouts.
In August 1924 it was reported that the group had raised sufficient funds to purchase a site and erect their own headquarters. A quarter acre plot “on the road to Tickenham” - at that time surrounded by fields - was purchased for £50 and the new headquarters - "The Hut" - was opened on 13 December 1924.
In December 1926 a water supply was added – by adding guttering around the building and water collection in a galvanised tank. Electric lights were added July 1929 which replaced oil lamps used up until that point.
During this time, the Scout Band was formed in March 1921.
1965 - 1990
On 18th September 1965 “The Hut”, which by that point had served the group for 40 years, was replaced with the a new hall and front entrance building - the latter is still in place today. In 1975 two rooms were added at the rear of HQ.
The new building was opened in 1965 by "Glad" Bincham Esq., Chief Scout's International Commissioner, on Saturday 18th September 1965 using these scissors.
1965 - new front entrance building and hall
1990 - new side extension with stores and upstairs training room is opened
1990 to 2016
On 30th September 1990 the latest extension was opened. This comprised a new two-storey extension to the south of the hall, with stores facility on the ground floor, above which was a dedicated training room with all modern facilities, named the Robert Hobbs Room in honour of a longstanding supporter of 1st Nailsea.
By the mid-2010s, the 1960s hall was showing signs of age, and the Group undertook a significant fundraising campaign to raise nearly £200,000 to demolish and rebuild it.
This was completed in 2016, with the building of a modern hall and two meeting rooms behind the original 1965 front entrance building. The meeting rooms are named the Jack Warry Room and the Eric Haines Room in honour of two of our long-serving leaders.
To inaugurate the new hall, "The Hut" was formally renamed the “Activity and Training Centre”.
2016 to date
In late 2019, the Group further extended the activities available with the installation of a new climbing wall in the hall.
