Girlguiding Staffordshire Celebrates

Girlguiding Staffordshire Celebrates 1917 - 2017

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Maureen Recine

Jane Dudson

Julie Tanner

Girlguiding Staffordshire

Girlguiding Staffordshire

Girlguiding Staffordshire

County Commissioner

County President

Assistant County Commissioner

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Foreword It is a privilege to have the role of Girlguiding Staffordshire County President and County Commissioner as the County celebrates 100 years of amazing Girlguiding.

As you read this book you will see that much has changed over the years. Our photographs show many uniform changes but are now very practical for girls in 2017. Our programmes have changed to reflect the period of time we were living through and our promise has changed to meet the changes in cultural and spiritual need. However many things have not changed. We continue to make friends, have fun and experience new activities to develop our full potential.

We could not have provided guiding across Staffordshire for 100 years without our volunteers, the leaders who provide the opportunities that may not be available elsewhere.

We have used the word “Celebration� to describe this special year and we have celebrated with our current members but we have also reflected on all that has gone before and celebrated our history.

Hundreds of thousands of girls and women have been part of our story and we can never forget or underestimate the amount of voluntary service given.

Representative members from the County visited Kenya in October 2017 and visited the resting place of our founder Lady Olave Baden-Powell and Lord Robert Baden-Powell. We planted three bushes and unveiled a plaque which thanks our founders for their vision. A very fitting end to a very special year.

We dedicate this book to all those who have been part of Girlguiding in Staffordshire over the last 100 years with grateful thanks.

Jane Dudson and Maureen Recine

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Our County Commissioners

Mrs. Horace Wardle

1917 - 1945

Dorothy Dean 1946 - 1953

Gladys Parry 1965 - 1974

Mary Yates OBE 1974 - 1984

Lesley Knighton 1997 - 2002

Rachel Hawley Mrs. Norman Richards H W Lancaster 1958 - 1960 1953 - 1957 1962 - 1965

Sheila Craggs 1984 - 1985

Norma Oldham 2002 - 2007

Jean Broad BEM 1985 - 1992

Pauline McKie 2007 - 2012 4

Joan Redfern 1992 - 1997

Maureen Recine 2012 - Present

Our County Presidents

Countess of Dartmouth Lady Mary Coke CBE 1917 - 1929

Rt Hon Earl of Dartmouth William Heneage Legge 1930 - 1936

Countess of Harrowby Hon Mabel Davers Smith DBE 1936 - 1953

Countess of Shrewsbury Nadine Talbot 1954 - 1959

Countess of Harrowby Lady Helena Blanche Coventry 1959 - 1969

Mrs R Basil Johnson 1969 - 1979

Miss M Monks OBE 1980 - 1997

Angela Tams 1997 - 2003

Countess of Shrewsbury Deborah Jane Hutchinson 2003 - 2006

Margaret Wright 2006 - 2016

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Jane Dudson 2016 - Present

1910s

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1910s

The Beginning of Girlguiding Staffordshire The story of Girlguiding Staffordshire starts in 1917.

There are Brownie, Guide and Ranger units that are older than the county. However a County within the Guide Association did not form until a County Commissioner was appointed. In October 1917. An influential County meeting was convened by the Countess of Dartmouth (who became the first president of Girlguiding Staffordshire) for the purpose of hearing an address from Lady Baden-Powell and to create an organised Girlguiding movement in Staffordshire. Mrs Horace Wardle was appointed as the first County Commissioner for Staffordshire and accepted her position at this meeting.

Fun fact Did you know that Mrs Horace Wardle was actually enrolled into Girlguiding in the ladies cloakroom at Manchester Station!

The County Buildings, Stafford

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1920s

Lady Baden-Powells Visits

The County received a visit from Lady Baden-Powell in June 1920, where she spent three days in the County. She enjoyed action-packed activities with rallies organised in Burton-upon-Trent, Stoke-onTrent, Stafford, Lichfield and Walsall. Lady Baden-Powell was very impressed with the enthusiasm in Staffordshire. This was clear from a message from Lady Baden-Powell saying, “The County fairly burst itself with keenness at once, and became one of the best counties in no time�.

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1920s

The First County Standard 1921 brought about the beginning of the County Standard. With various discussion and designs a final design was submitted by the County Commissioner, Mrs Horace Wardle, bearing the Cross of St Chad charged above the Stafford Knot, the Dartmouth Crest and of course the trefoil. This design was the work of Leek School of Needlework. Described by Lord Dartmouth (the County President at the time) at its dedication as “a rally point for all Staffordshire Guides for many years to come.� The first County Standard is displayed in a glass case, as it always was intended to be, in the County Buildings, Stafford.

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1930s

The 6th Earl of Dartmouth, second County President for Girlguiding Staffordshire.

In 1929, the Countess of Dartmouth sadly passed away but her husband the Right Honourable, 6th Earl of Dartmouth succeeded her as the next County President for Girlguiding Staffordshire.

When the Countess of Dartmouth was being enrolled by Lady Baden-Powell, the Earl of Dartmouth stepped forward and said “Won’t you enrol me too?” The Chief Guide took off her own Trefoil and did so. The Earl of Dartmouth thus became the only “Boy Girl Guide” and was very proud of this distinction. Afterwards the Headquarters put a stop to further enrolments of this nature!

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1930s

Visit from Her Royal Highness Princess Mary The County was visited in June 1932 by Her Royal Highness Princess Mary at a rally at Trentham Gardens. One Girlguiding member who was at the rally reported that “for one who was fortunate enough to see the tour of the Princess Royal from its beginning to the moments when she left at the end of an eventful afternoon, the impression created by her Royal Highness was simply that her very presence and her always gracious interest in what she was shown means a great renewed driving power to the Girl Guide Movement in Staffordshire.” The whole day was a spectacular event. The great level expanse of old lawns, fresh shrubbery and fountain basins were covered by ten thousand girls. Nearest to where the Princess stood, the Brownies made a splash of sombre colour as they sat on the lawns behind them and stretching away down the spacious central walk, are thousands of dark blue figures who were their elders of the movement.

As members of Girlguiding Staffordshire it is important to know how special our Staffordshire Knot badges are. In a Staffordshire Quarterly News Leaflet from 1936, it mentions that Guides in all other counties wear their county badges in cloth, Staffordshire Guides are allowed, by Imperial Headquarters, to wear the Stafford Knot in metal though in the early days it was “one more thing to clean”.

Nowadays it is made of a non-tarnishing metal so we have nothing to do but be proud of our privilege. At the Royal Albert Hall Peace Rally in 1919, at which one Guider and two Guides from each Company attended, everyone took a needle and cotton and in the Gallery, before the performance commenced, stitched on the front of their hats a Stafford Knot. This is the origin of wearing county badges on hats.

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1930s

County Commissioner’s Brooch On the 21st anniversary of the Girl Guide Association in Staffordshire a sum of £100 (around £6000 today) had been collected to make a presentation to Mrs Horace Wardle.

Half of the money was used to buy trees to plant at Beaudesert and a silver pencil to hang from her belt. The other half of the money was used to purchase a Diamond Trefoil Brooch with ‘B.P.’ in emeralds. When Mrs Wardle died, her wish was that the brooch should be pinned upon the County Standard, however the problems of obtaining insurance cover prevented this being carried out and in December 1946 a different course of action was agreed and remains in place to this date. Since 1st January 1950 the brooch has been handed to the incoming County Commissioner, for her personal use, during her period in office. Upon completion of her appointment she hands the brooch to the new County Commissioner.

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1930s

Formation of the Old Guides Club The Old Guides Clubs who were the forerunners of the Trefoil Guild which first started within Staffordshire in Stoke-onTrent in 1937 and they can claim to be the second oldest guild in the country.

They were closely followed three months later by Burton upon Trent.

The membership cards for the Old Guides Club stated “As a member of the Old Guides Fellowship, I am willing to do my best to keep the Promise which I made as a Guide�

Lady Baden-Powell visits again Lady Baden-Powell visited Girlguiding Staffordshire again in 1943 where she toured the County visiting Stokeon-Trent for a meeting with North West Staffordshire, Leek, Uttoxeter, Cheadle and the Moorlands divisions, to Lichfield to meet with Lichfield, Walsall, Wednesbury and West Bromwich divisions, onto Stafford to meet with Stafford and Stone divisions, to Wolverhampton to meet with the Wolverhampton division and finally to Beaudesert for a Scouts and Guides Own!

Official Opening of Beaudesert The official opening of Beaudesert Campsite was held in July of 1938. The event was presided over by Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal (President of the Girl Guides Association). The ceremony took place in the Walled Garden where Her Royal Highness planted two trees to commemorate the occasion and inspected the Guide and Scout camps.

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1939

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1945

Second World War Efforts During the Second World War many Girlguiding members were mobilised as officers in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, others were ambulance drivers, on duty at first aid posts, and owing to the black-out, the majority of companies and packs could only meet on Saturday afternoons. One Lichfield company offered their services to the Women’s Voluntary Service as messengers during the first weeks of the war. They worked in shifts two at a time and were kept very busy. Some of the Guides were knitting for the Navy, some companies were collecting waste materials.

Evacuee children had arrived in Staffordshire and were welcomed into several companies. Members of Girlguiding Staffordshire gave whatever they could to help out in the war and there was a change to their uniform, owing to the shortage of metal, woven Stafford Knots were to be used for the duration of the war.

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1940s

Queen’s Guide Award Launched After the launch of the Queen’s Guide Award in 1946, Staffordshire gained their first two Queen’s Guides in 1948. This was, and still is to this day, an extremely prestigious award and is the highest award you can work towards in guiding.

Trefoil Guilds First Rally In 1949, the Trefoil Guild gathered for their first rally and conference.

This was held at the Beaudesert Guide House and was attended by Trefoil Guild members from across the County and by the County Commissioner.

It was a great day of celebration for these ladies after growing in membership over the last 12 years with 200 members in six Guilds.

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1950s

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II 1952 brought sorrow to the whole country with the King’s death, leading to Guides across the country renewing their Promises at their unit meetings in order to swear their allegiance to the new monarch. 1953 saw huge celebrations to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. A special Guide ‘Coronation’ book was published which gave details both of the ceremony, and the Queen’s guiding career. There was a special badge to be worn on uniforms, and all sorts of pageants and celebrations were arranged during the year. Guiding members around Britain did special good turns, which were recorded and sent to the Queen as an expression of their service and loyalty. The event was especially valued, as the Queen had been a Guide, Sea Ranger and then served as Chief Ranger of the British Empire.

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1950s

Visit from Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret In 1956, a county rally was organised for an impressive presentation for the Chief Ranger of the British Empire, her Royal Highness the Princess Margaret. Following the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margret replaced her sister as Chief Ranger of the British Empire.

A rally took place at Dunstall Park Race Course in Wolverhampton where there was a pageant celebrating Staffordshire’s trade and industry with community singing and campfire songs.

New name for the County Court of Honour The grand title of the County Court of Honour was given to the County Executive Committee we know today.

They used to meet quarterly at the County Buildings in Stafford. A letter was received in 1954 from the Imperial Headquarters stating that the County Court of Honour title will gradually be faded out and that the County Executive Committee would be the title commonly used.

Also in 1954, a great fundraising week was carried out by members of the County. The week commencing 31st May became known as Girl Guide Biscuit Week, where shortbread biscuits were baked and stored in attractive Girl Guide cartons and sold all over the County.

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1950s

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1960s

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1960s

Jubilee Camp at Beaudesert to Celebrate 50 Years of Guiding 1960 saw Guiding’s Jubilee and celebrations held all over the County to mark the special occasion. A Jubilee Rally was organised at the Walsall Arboretum in May of that year. This was thirsty work for the 8,000 Girl Guides and Brownies, who were so thirsty that nearly 500 crates of soft drinks were consumed in under three hours! The Brownies lined the route in the Arboretum for a mile long parade of Girl Guides. It took nearly half an hour to march past the open air platform. The salute was taken by the County Commissioner, County President and The Mayoress of Walsall.

After the march past, 4,000 Brownies crowded together in a tightly packed circle to represent a huge birthday cake complete with candles. There were also exhibitions of folk dancing, camping and proficiency test work. At the end of the afternoon, the girls gathered round a blazing campfire for some singing.

Another celebration of the jubilee was at Beaudesert where in July of 1960, 500 Guides gathered to celebrate the Association’s 50th Birthday and Staffordshire was pleased to welcome Guides from many lands.

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1960s

Another visit from Lady Baden-Powell The County was graced with another visit from Lady Baden-Powell in 1967. She arrived at Stafford Station where a guard of honour lined the platform and station bridge which was made up of selected Brownies and Guides from different divisions. Girls from around the County then gathered together at Blessed William Howard School for a rally and an address from the World Chief Guide. In her speech she said, “We are a living force for good in the length and breadth of the entire world and we have countless friends in high places who value the contribution we are making to their country.” She went on to say, “It is obvious that a great deal of work has been done by yourselves over a very long period of time and I am grateful for this opportunity to thank you personally for that work”.

After the rally in Stafford, Lady Baden-Powell then travelled to Hanley where she attended a rally at the Victoria Hall and was welcomed by over 1,000 Guides and Brownies from North Staffordshire.

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1960s

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1970s

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1970s

Opening of the Training Centre “The Breeze Chalet” at Maer Her Royal Highness, The Princess Margaret Countess of Snowdon, gave Staffordshire Guides a day to remember when she opened the Training Centre at Maer in June 1973.

The Princess was said to be at her most charming, chatting with the girls and showing a genuine interest in their activities. On her walk around the Harrison Camp Site she congratulated the girls on their singing and campfire entertainment.

The purpose of the Princess’s visit was to open the new building erected on the three acre camp site at Maer. The lane and nearby Copeland Cottage were a gift from Miss Harrison of Maer Hall. More dry shelter and training facilities were needed and a substantial donation from North Staffordshire Philanthropist Mr Eric Breeze had enabled the chalet like building to be completed.

The Princess later unveiled a commemorative plaque.

The County Splits Staffordshire was a very large County with a membership of more than 20,000 and encompassed the West Mercia area. It was considered to be too large and was therefore split. In April the Staffordshire Girl Guide Association became a separate entity with 12,000 members.

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1980s

Bingley Bonanza

The siege of Lichfield Cathedral, the Battle of Hopton Heath, Gypsy Campfire, all the Fun of the Fair, Circus Parade and dancing were only a few of the activities on offer at Staffordshire County Showground in 1981 when Guides from all over the County enjoyed Bingley Bonanza.

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1980s

Celebrate 75 years in 1985 Members throughout the County walked 75 miles of the Staffordshire Way to mark 75 years of Guiding and to take part in the outdoor challenge that the Association launched in this special year to encourage all sections to get out and have fun. A main group of brave souls set out from Mow Cop in the very north of the County on 15th April 1985. As they progressed south they were joined by more members of the Association. Some walked with them for a few miles and others stayed for much longer. Finally on the 20th April they walked into Wheaton Aston led by Chadsmoor Guide Band, foot sore but happy.

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1980s

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1980s

Celebrate 75 years in 1985 Venture ‘85 was Staffordshire Guides’ County Camp to celebrate 75 years of Guiding. 75 self equipped, self catering Guide patrols braved the indifferent weather to celebrate in style.

They searched for wood and cooked their dampers just like the Guides of 1910. On the Sunday afternoon all traditions were broken when sub camp met sub camp in an all out ‘It’s A Knockout’ competition. Sporting ‘fab’ head gear in sub camp colours, competitors and supporters gathered to do battle. Screams of excitement followed in ‘Balloon Burst’, ‘Trooping the Colour’, “Trefoil Trip’ and many more games which all seemed to involve gallons of water being thrown.

All the excitement was followed by a street party tea, the like of which many a street would have been proud of.

As part of the 75th anniversary year celebration, Princess Margaret took part in a candle lighting ceremony in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace on 24th June 1985. Her Royal Highness presented lighted candle lamps to 10 delegates of guiding representing nine countries and regions and British Guides who live in foreign countries. The first ten lights, representing the flame of guiding were taken away to the countries and regions by land, sea and air to start a week of celebration. The following day Mrs Delia Ronson, Midlands Regional Commissioner brought the region lamp to headquarters in Ashby de la Zouch from Buckingham Palace by plane and helicopter. Staffordshire County Commissioner, Mrs Sheila Craggs wearing a Commissioner uniform from the 1920s received the light and transferred to a horse drawn carriage to travel to Ashfield House in Burton upon Trent. Here she transferred to the Bass Bottle Car to proceed to the Bass Museum where she was greeted by Mr Rupert Wilkins, Managing Director of Bass Worthington Ltd. and entertained to tea. She left the Bass Museum in the bottle car and transferred to another sports car at B.T.R Ltd., a Buick Car at Tutbury and an Austin 7 at Weston to complete the journey at the county barbecue at Sandon, the home of Lord Harrowby.

Stone Brownies and Guides formed a Guard of Honour and Chase Girl Guide Band led the County Commissioner to where division commissioners were waiting to receive the light on behalf of the Guides in their divisions. At the end of the evening Rangers and Young Leaders took their own division lights, again by unusual methods of transport, back to their divisions where plans had already been made to hold division light ceremonies and parties during the special guiding week.

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1980s

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1980s

National Garden Festival - County Day On the 31st May 1986 over 1,000 members of the Guide Movement were present at the Garden Festival held in Stoke-on-Trent. In the marina, the girls could have a go at rafting and boating. In the arena, the finals of the county cooking competition were held along with pioneering, camp craft, kite making, felt craft, paper craft and singing games. Over at the lawns, the girls tried out Israeli dances, disco dancing displays, and joined in with the Burton Tambourine Band. The day was then brought to a close with a campfire.

The girls were very lucky to be part of the Garden Festival for their annual county day and were graced with a visit from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Although the Garden Festival organisers had been praying for sun, the weather did not affect the number of posies given to the Queen when she did a walkabout.

The excitement reached fever pitch for the Brownies and Guides, when the Queen stopped to talk to them. Flags and daffodils were waved furiously on this memorable day for the girls.

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1980s

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1980s

Fanfare - a Festival of the Arts Fanfare was created as a Festival of the Arts in guiding to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Lady Olave Baden-Powell, World Chief Guide. On the 6th May 1989 an estimated 2,000 youngsters representing all sections from all over Staffordshire travelled to Lichfield Cathedral to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Lady Olave Baden-Powell. From early morning, the cathedral and the cathedral close were alight with colour as the girls entertained each other and their visitors creating a happy almost carnival atmosphere.

The county orchestra conducted by Mrs Jane Holmes filled the cathedral with the most amazing sound and groups of singers performed songs from 1910 up to the present day. Many different styles of dance were performed and outside marching bands paraded. The Brownies danced around a maypole and Rainbow Guides played Edwardian street games. In the quiet of the Lady Chapel there were stories, plays and poems. An exhibition of creative art lined the aisles and thousands of painted paper plates decorated the length and breadth of the Cathedral. The day began and ended with services. Civic leaders and friends of Staffordshire Guiding joined in prayer. As the County Commissioner Mrs Jean Broad said: “We wanted to come to this beautiful cathedral to give thanks to God for the life and work of Lady Baden-Powell and to celebrate in a guiding way.�

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1990s

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1990s

The Big Tea Cosy Knit In October 1990 the Countess of Shrewsbury launched the Building Blocks Appeal. The target of the appeal was to raise £750,000 to build a child assessment unit for the physically and mentally handicapped children at the City General Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent. The appeal organisers were delighted when Staffordshire Guides decided to help raise money for the appeal by knitting the biggest tea cosy in the world and placing on the world’s biggest teapot in Stoke-on-Trent. Everyone in the Association from the youngest Rainbow to the oldest Trefoil Guild member was involved in this gargantuan task. Many girls learned how to knit for the first time.

A competition was then launched to guess how many fleeces would have been used if all the squares of the cosy had been knitted in pure wool. Guides encouraged all their family and friends to have a guess at 10p a go and of course there were prizes for the winners. The project broke the record for the biggest tea cosy ever made and the largest number of people involved in knitting one item, estimated as at least 10,000. The record eventually appeared in the 1995 Guinness Book of Records. When the cosy was finally removed from the pot it was unstitched and made into blankets which were distributed to the elderly.

GOLD - Guiding Overseas Linked with Development During the 1990s, Staffordshire was in the forefront of the development of guidings GOLD Project (Guiding Overseas Linked with Development). This is a national project and we were proud that Staffordshire member Pauline McKie was part of the team and dedicated a lot of her time and expertise to this exciting project. This project took young women into the resurgence of guiding in countries where political restraints had made the Scout and Guide movement illegal for many decades. In some countries. GOLD has been working with member countries of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) for nearly 25 years. So far, nationally over 600 members of Girlguiding have had an adventure of a lifetime and girls from Staffordshire have benefited hugely from its inception.

Young Guiders Group In 1990, a County Young Guiders Group met for the first time, a nucleus of guiders from around the county planned an evening of fun, friendship and fast food. Over 40 young guiders arrived at Rugeley Guide Headquarters. This group grew through the 1990s and gained an excellent reputation in providing activity bases at many large events such as The County Beaver Scout Day, The Rainbow Picnics and of course Brownie Revels.

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1990s

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1990s

Freda Flies Around the World The county have held many Brownie Revel events over the years including ‘Going Dutch’ in 1976, ‘Wizard of Oz’ in 1983 and ‘Celebrating 75 years of Brownies’ in 1989. One of the most memorable Brownie Revels was ‘Freda’s Flight Around the World’ in 1996. The County Showground in Staffordshire was transformed overnight into an international airport. With flights to Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia and America. Brownies with their guiders flew to every land with passports in hand. Nearly 3,500 ice cream cornets were consumed in Italy, Mickey Mouse was well and truly alive in America, boomerangs spun through the air in Australia, whilst in Africa thousands of bead necklaces were made, just in time to pop over to Asia for a nice cup of tea.

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1990s

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2000s

New County Headquarters Up until the mid 1980s the county relied on administration support from the spare rooms and the garages of secretaries and support staff. The first county office was housed above the Gas Showrooms in Stone, previously used as a Ranger meeting room. A “Notice to Quit” in 1994 prompted a desperate search to find new accommodation, the answer came in the form of a classroom at the Lonsdale County Primary School in Eccleshall. Whilst this was suitable for the administration of the county, any county meetings had to be held in church halls, schools or any building that was willing to house the growing variety of advisors and executive meetings.

Clearly a headquarters of their own was necessary to equip the county with the support systems necessary to service our growing needs, especially with the advent of computer communication and information data.

Since 1995 the search for suitable land geographically placed near the centre of the county led them to the caretaker’s derelict bungalow at St. Peter’s Primary School in Hixon, which was for sale by sealed bid. The county managed to secure the land for £10,000. At the same time they were astounded to learn that a former County Commissioner, Miss Dorothy Dean had left the County a legacy of around £130,000. Coupled with a successful lottery bid of £240,000, the finances for the new headquarters were in place.

The architect for the project, Trevor Hurst, created the design to the county’s specification of a large hall, small meeting rooms, storage, office accommodation and car parking. Trevor also liaised with the other Professionals to bring the project to life these included an electrical engineer, project manager and builder. County Commissioner, Joan Redfern is owed a huge debt of thanks; she led our bid, oversaw the build and gave many, many hours of dedicated service to ensure Staffordshire had its own HQ. During the year of 1999, the building slowly rose out of the ground to become the Staffordshire County Headquarters we have today. It was officially opened by the Chief Guide, Bridget Towle, on Thinking Day, 22nd February 2000. A fine building for the new millennium and the realisation of our dream for a Staffordshire County Headquarters.

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2000s

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2000s

Manor Park Opened Staffordshire Guides dropped anchor in King’s Bromley and opened their new watersport base in 2001. The old site in Cannock had been deemed unsafe. Margaret Smith, County Boating Advisor found our new base and organised the move to the Manor Park Sailing Club at Kings Bromley. The new site was opened with the Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire in attendance.

The opening ceremony saw girls from across the county set sail in canoes and kayaks.

On Wednesday 8th June 2016, Margaret Smith opened the new pontoon to replace the old jetty at Manor Park. The old jetty could only hold a few people at a time, but this new pontoon is very stable and will not rot like the wooden pontoon could. It can have the two bellboats moored one either side so that people can be getting into them both at the same time.

There is one annual county event that causes a lot of competition, the annual bell boat regatta. For over ten years, divisions have put in Brownie, Guide and leader teams to compete for the prestigious Bell Boat Regatta Paddle Trophy. The event takes place every autumn at Manor Park and is well attended by many teams from around the county.

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2000s

New County Standard At 41 years old and having travelled across the county to ceremonies and services our standard started to show its age and required repairs. A new county standard was commissioned and completed in 2002. It was dedicated at a service of celebration at Lichfield in October of 2002.

A huge amount of work was undertaken by our wonderful volunteer team to produce the new standard. The design showed the trefoil, Staffordshire Knot and icons from across the county. The original county standard is still housed prominently at the top of the grand staircase in the County Buildings, in a case specially made to retain a special part of the county’s history.

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2000s

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2010s

Celebrations for Girlguiding Centenary

Party in the Park Thousands of girls and women gathered at Shugborough Hall for the party of the century to start the celebration of 100 years of Girlguiding Music and magic were on the agenda for 7,000 members of Girlguiding Staffordshire as they enjoyed a “Party in the Park�. The Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers, Young Leaders and leaders were joined by former guiders and other invited guests and were all greeted by a live band on arrival. There were also magicians, stilt walkers and clowns to amuse the party-goers. The main live entertainment included Justin Fletcher from Cbeebies, Take That tribute band, indie band The Tunics, Ian Kelesy, Faryl Smith and ex-Atomic Kitten star Liz McClanon as compere.

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2010s

Rainbows go wild Rainbow’s Go Wild was another event to celebrate the centenary. Staffordshire Rainbows celebrated the centenary on a fantastic warm sunny day at Rodbaston. They visited four different zones (Farm, Animal, Theatre and Field) and collected look, learn, laugh and love stickers.

Each zone had its own special highlight. In the Farm Zone they enjoyed a tractor ride, in Animal Zone the Rainbows learnt about all the animals living at the farm, in the Theatre Zone they sat on hay bales to enjoy an interactive performance and finally in Field Zone the Rainbows could play games and enjoy the donkey rides.

Brownies take to the Track Take to the Tracks was held at Churnet Valley Railway for the Brownies.

The whole day was planned around a Harry Potter theme. The Brownies arrived on the “Brownie Express” steam train and then enjoyed a potions lesson with science experiments, quidditch games and light up wands to perform magic on the train in the dark. They also got the chance to meet some real owls.

Vision 20:10 20/10 The end of the centenary was marked with Vision 20:10 20/10 2010. Each division organised their own celebration, where at 8:10pm thousands of girls and women across the country renewed their promise and launched the next 100 years of Girlguiding. Some of these events included a Vision Party for Stone and Eccleshall Division and a campfire and fireworks for Rugeley Division.

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2010s

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2010s

A Stick in Time There were so many celebrations around the county for the centenary but one truly spectacular event was the centenary garden for BBC Gardeners’ World Live. Carol Adams, a leader in Staffordshire and garden designer, approached the County Commissioner to design a garden to commemorate 100 years of guiding. The 100 square metre garden featured 400 sticks.

The sticks painted by all sections of the membership each had a unique message written by a member. The units had help with planting the seeds and a team of leaders helped with potting the plants and the constant monitoring and watering of the plants.

The garden won Best in Show and also a Gold Medal.

The garden was then transported to Trentham Gardens so that members of Girlguiding could visit and enjoy the splendour of their hard work and for it to be enjoyed by members of the public.

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2010s

Rainbows 25th Birthday

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In 2012, the Rainbows marked their 25th Birthday by celebarting with a ‘Madhatter`s Tea Party’. They met Alice, the White Rabbit, the Doormouse and the Queen of Hearts at the Churnet Valley Railway. They took a steam train to Consall Station where they saw a special show, played games, joined in the fun in the craft tent and had a very special tea party with Rainbows from around the county.

2010s

Brownies 100th Birthday 2014 brought about the 100 year celebration for the Brownie section, The Big Brownie Birthday.

Each division organised a Big Brownie Sleepover and the big event for the county was Star Quest. This event was held at the Staffordshire County Showground. The day included activities from It’s a Knockout, Punch and Judy, playing on the beach, a huge amount of inflatables to try out and traditional Brownie activities. At the end of a busy day of activities the girls partied away to a Little Mix tribute act.

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2010s

Another 100 year celebration was for the Senior Section To celebrate this special event, a more sophisticated affair was planned with a Masquerade Ball. All Senior Section members from around the county were invited to the ball to arrive in style, enjoy a sit down meal where the waitresses included our Division Commissioners. They danced the night away to an Olly Murs tribute act and a DJ. It was a superb way to kick off the Senior Section Spectacular celebrations.

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2010s

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Beaudesert

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Beaudesert

Official Opening of Beaudesert The official opening of Beaudesert Campsite was in July of 1938. The event was presided over by Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal (President of the Girl Guides Association). The ceremony took place in the Walled Garden where Her Royal Highness planted 2 trees to commemorate the occasion and inspected the Guide and Scout Camps.

Records show that Girl Guides were camping in Beaudesert long before the site was officially opened. As far back as the 13th century there has been a house at Beaudesert. It was occupied

by Bishops of Lichfield and Coventry until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. In 1546, Henry VIII gave the house to Sir William Paget. The house was rebuilt along Tudor lines and furnished with valuable tapestries, pictures and other treasures, some coming from Hampton Court. During the next two centuries the Paget family had mixed fortunes until the late 18th century when Henry William Paget, who had served his country with distinction at the battle of Waterloo, was made the first Marquis of Anglesey.

Following a fire in November 1909, the 6th Marquis spent a large amount of money improving the grounds and renovating the house. In 1920, the Marquis went to live at Plas Newydd on Anglesey.

The Marquis, in 1937, gifted the parkland to the Scouts, Guides and youth of Staffordshire. The lands were conveyed to a Charitable Trust—’The King George V Memorial Scouts and Guides Recreational Lands’, more commonly known as ‘The Beaudesert Trust’.

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Beaudesert

Chantrey House Beaudesert Campsite has played an important role in the history of Girlguiding Staffordshire giving thousands of young people their first taste of camping and the opportunity of experiencing the excitement and adventure offered by the great outdoors. An experience which for many has made their lives richer and given happy memories to remember.

Opened in 1968, this Brownie House is named after its architect, the husband of Bunty Chantrey a keen guider in Staffordshire.

Dorothy Dean Hut In memory and dedication of Miss Dorothy Dean, the Dorothy Dean hut was opened in 1955 at Beaudesert campsite.

The chalet type hut is said to stand at the best viewpoint on the guide site. Twenty years later the campsite nearest the hut was also named after Miss Dorothy Dean.

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Beaudesert

Owl’s Nest Our very own log cabin, Owl’s Nest, was opened in June 1992 by Mrs Margaret Wright, Midlands Region Chief Commissioner. The Brownie House was paid for by voluntary contributions and considerable fundraising by Staffordshire and West Mercia guiding counties.

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Unity

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Unity

Unity In 1992, twelve divisions named after European countries joined together at Beaudesert Scout and Guide Camp. The action packed programme of activities kept everyone well occupied, but the emphasis was on keeping alive basic camping skills. The finale was an ‘It’s a Knockout’ held in the walled garden, organised by the Young Guider Group. The cheers could be heard all over the site as the teams encouraged each other.

In the evenings they were entertained with a barn dance, disco, wide game, campfire, but the most memorable was the night the international guests entertained us with their countries specialities. introduced by the local town crier. The canvas village was deserted on the penultimate day when all the sub camps descended on Alton Towers and discovered the Black Hole.

The next international camp aptly names “Unity” was held at the Outdoor Centre in the grounds of Shugborough Hall, the stately home of the Earl of Lichfield, in 1994. An exciting week was had by our international Guide friends who had joined us from the U.S.A., New Jersey, Ohio, Hong Kong, India, Egypt, Pakistan, Oman, Malaysia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Italy, New Zealand, France and Uganda.

County Commissioner Joan Redfern’s personal challenge to everyone was to see who could eat the most pancakes during the week. The sub camps, Tower of the Winds, Chinese House, Triumphal Arch, Doric Temple, Langthom of Demosthenes (names of follies on the park), joined together for activities such as golf, mountain biking, circus skills, archery, self defence, clay pigeon shooting, fencing, crafts and aqua sports. The opportunities were endless.

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Unity

Over the years Unity has gone from strength to strength.

There has been a Unity camp every 4 years since 1994 offering new and exciting experiences for Guides across the county every time.

A very special Unity was during Girlguiding’s centenary year, 2010. The girls enjoyed many activities including Its a Knockout, guiding traditions, craft, climbing and so many more outdoor activities. On the Wednesday, the whole camp went up to Harewood House in Yorkshire for the day to join over 20,000 Guides from all over the UK, along with many international visitors, for Girlguiding UK’s massive outdoor entertainment festival, Fusion.

In 2018, Unity will move to a new venue at Abbotsholme School in Rocester and promises to offer a really great and memorable event.

1992 - 1994 - 1998 - 2002 58

Unity

- 2006 - 2010 - 2014 - 2018 59

Awards

Staffordshire Guides has been proud over the years to recognise the achievements of its members and the contribution of its volunteer leaders and has done so by holding celebratory awards ceremonies.

Adult Leader Awards The first adult awards event was held in 2013 at Sandon Hall, home of Lord Harrowby. Leaders receiving awards for 20 years of service upwards are invited to attend along with our other award recipients and a guest. During these events we have seen the presentation of fifteen 50 year service awards and in 2017 our first 60 year service award was presented.

As well as long service awards, there are a number of awards which can be made to leaders to recognise the very significant contribution many leaders have given. We present National and Local Awards to those who have been nominated by their divisions.

The Silver Fish (the highest award) has been presented to two recipients from the county since 1990. The Laurel Award has been presented to 11 adults since 1989 for outstanding service. The Good Service Brooch is presented for commendable conduct and excellent service has been presented to 54 recipients since 1992.

The Star of Merit, now the Guiding Star Is awarded for exceptional courage and has been presented to nine recipients since 1986. At regional level 67 Staffordshire members have gained The Midland Region Chief Commissioner’s Award for service to local guiding.

The County has its own Staffordshire Award and we have been delighted to present this award to 104 Staffordshire leaders and supporters since 1996 for making a significant contribution to guiding in the county.

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Awards

Queen’s Guide This is the highest award that members can work for in guiding and is open to members aged 16 to 25 years.

The award is based on the concepts of personal challenge and participation and is split into five sections.

Successful members will have been presented with these awards at local level and also at a national event. In the past Princess Margaret presented all Queen’s Guides then our current President the Countess of Wessex.

Now members are invited to a presentation at the Houses of Parliament. Staffordshire has been delighted to congratulate a significant number of Queen’s Guide Awards over the years.

The Duke of Edinburgh Award Girlguiding has offered many girls the opportunity to achieve Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards and have the pleasure of being presented with their Gold Awards by a member of the Royal Family.

Senior Section Awards We have celebrated the success of our young members gaining a range of awards: the Commonwealth Award, Young Leader Award, and Baden Powell Award, Chief Guide Award, and permits. In recent years this has been held in the County Buildings, Stafford.

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EST

The County Event Support Team (EST)

It was when Maureen Recine first took up her role as County Commissioner in 2012, that she approached David Hargreaves, asking him to form a team to support county events. David, known to everyone fondly as Haggis (above being arrested by our own police service), agreed and formed the team now known as the County Event Support Team (EST). Historically there had been a small group of people who often supported large events. Haggis spoke to them and many of them were the first recruits to the team. They went on to actively recruit many other members; these were mainly from leaders partners and some ex Scout leaders.

The team is made up of members, both male and female, who have an array of skills to offer.

These including electrics, plumbing, admin; and some who had previously been scenery builders with Guide and Scout Gang Shows or they were just good at turning their hand to anything.

The main qualification is to have a great sense of humour and to enjoy working in a team.The team 62

EST

attend county events supporting the main organisers and helping set up the infrastructures of events. They erect large tents and gazebos and other equipment, like extra toilets and large marquees; generators, fire extinguishers, radios and anything else required. They also erect gateways, fence off areas, climb ladders, sort electrics; organise car parking and have even been known to unblock toilets. The EST are seen around county events in bright purple tops, this often gives them the more recognisable name of the purple people!

The team’s first event was at Trentham Gardens for tree planting. There have been many successful events since then, large and small. Some events have involved thousands of girls across the county.

Their job can be very hard work at times; they are usually the first to arrive and the last to leave any event. However it is an extremely rewarding role and they really enjoy themselves too. Their main aim is to ensure the event is successful and that the girls have a great time and a lot of fun.

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Service Team

The County Service Team

Following the marvelous efforts of the Service Team at Unity 2014, it was decided that the county should have a permanent Service Team to support large events. The County Service Team will be brought in to help run activities, escort groups around an event and be as useful as they can to the organisers.

Led by Cat Kerr, the Service Team can always be spotted in their exceptionally bright green tops and with a huge smile on their faces. They have supported various events such as Wild Night Out, Wipe Out or Win and the Strictly Sparkly Sleepover in Blackpool. They can always be relied upon and are a true asset to our county.

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Service Team

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Divisions

Hixon

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Divisions

Our County and Divisions Burton-upon-Trent Cannock Lapley Leek Lichfield Longton Needwood Newcastle Rugeley

Stafford Stoke-on-Trent North Stoke-on-Trent South Stone and Eccleshall Stone Outward Tamworth Threapwood Uttoxeter

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Divisions

Burton upon Trent Inaugurated 4th February 1919 with seven Guide Companies (197 Guides) and one Brownie Pack with 11 Brownies Burton upon Trent Division was formed in 1919 with seven Guide companies and one Brownie pack. Following the formation of the division, the first division guide headquarters was opened at Shaftsbury House, Y.M.C.A. The following years of the division were years of firsts, giving its members so many memorable experiences. In 1921, the division joined forces with the Boy Scouts to organise a joint jamboree for members in Burton. The following year the first division camp was held in 1922. Also in 1922, the division obtained new headquarters in Worthington Stores.

The first Division Brownie/Guide social (later to be called revels) was organised in 1923. In 1925, the county held its first pagent, held its first annual swimming night for Guides and Brownies and the first Grand Rally with the Guide shield won by the 12th company. Also in 1925, the division organised their first international trip to Switzerland.

In 1927, the first Ranger Company was formed in the division, followed in 1938 by the formation of an “Old Guides� group now known as the Trefoil Guild.

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Divisions As the second world war began, “Good Turns” for the war effort were carried out by Guides in Burton. All the companies carried on during the war. In 1945, a post war camp and victory parade was organised at Netherseal Old Hall, Burton courtesy of Mrs. E. June.

In 1982, the division split with Needwood District being formed into their own division.

1949 celebrated the first Queen’s Guide in Burton awarded to Jean Goodall.

The Girl Guide Movement celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 1985. The division celebrated with a Thinking Day Service in St. Chads Church. Following this over 1,000 members attended Guide Week, light from London spread through the divisions, with a Burton Guider being the first citizen to walk over new St. Peter’s Bridge with the light. The county also organised the Staffordshire Way Walk which was attended by members of the division.

In 1983, the division made another purchase, The Orchard which was bought for the new division campsite.

During the 1950s, Burton Division was represented at many county and national events. In 1953, Burton Guides attended the Coronation of Elizabeth II Coronation Pageant. In 1956, Princess Margaret visited the county for a Rally in Wolverhampton where Burton was represented. During 1957, Burton Division attended the B.P. Centenary Service at Westminster Abbey, the Chief Guide’s visit to Stafford Borough Hall and the World Camp at Windsor.

In 1988, the first Rainbow unit in the division was opened in Hatton. Also in 1988, Guides and Rangers from Burton appeared on “Blue Peter” television programme.

Sadly in 1960 the division headquarters suffered a fire which resulted in a restoration project being required in 1961.

Burton Division have been represented at every unity camp. Particularly memorable was the 2002 Unity where the Kenyan participants stayed at Brook House after the camp.

In 1964, the division proposed the purchase of Brook House as a joint Scout and Guide Headquarters in Burton. Following the purchase of Brook House, an extension to the house commenced in 1967.

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Divisions

Cannock The first unit to be founded in the Cannock area was the 1st Hednesford Guide Unit on 15th November 1920, closely followed by 1st Chadsmoor Guides in May 1921.

Brownies followed in Chadsmoor in the October of 1921 when 1st Chadsmoor Brownie pack opened. By the early 1930’s Brownie packs and Guide units had spread across Cannock and the surrounding parishes of Bridgtown, Huntington, Hednesford and Chadsmoor. With units being founded in the parishes of Norton Canes by 1941 and Hazel Slade in the early 1950’s.

in Heath Hayes and Cannock also opened its first Ranger Guide Unit. At this time Cannock was a district and part of Stafford Woodside Division. The district was becoming too difficult to manage, so by 1979 a restructuring was required and Cannock District Commissioner Mary MacPherson oversaw the restructure.

As the war years came along, many of the units disbanded during this time, with 1st Cannock Guides being the only unit to continue throughout. From the late 1950’s and into the early 1970’s Brownie packs and Guide units continued to expand including units now opened 70

By 1980 Cannock Division was formed and was made up of three districts, Cannock Central, Hightown, and Fiveways. Betty Morgan became Cannock Division’s first division commissioner, with Angela Pegg as the division’s first president who remained in the role until 2008.

Divisions The division set about getting itself established with organised division events including Brownie Revels held at the Huntington Primary School; Guide outdoor cooking events at Blackford’s Scout and Guide hut; division days and competitions at Hednesford Hills and Beaudesert Scout and Guide site. Division swimming galas were anticipated with great excitement, the event covered all sections and was well supported.

Prizes were keenly competed for, but above all it was a good family gathering!

The division has always been proud of the talent that it holds and even today units look forward to a division show. In one of the first shows the then vicar of St Luke’s Church, the Rev. John Linford sang a duet with a member of his congregation, Jean Bradbury. Their contribution to the show was well acknowledged and enjoyed. At the time the church were appealing for funds to re-pew the church and monies from the show went to support this community project! To this day there is still a pew dedicated to Cannock Division.

well together with district days, carol and thinking day services and the division show remains a favourite.

Following a chance conversation and admiration of the support that Staffordshire Trefoil Guild gave to Staffordshire’s Unity International Camp in 2002, the division finally opened its doors to its own Trefoil Guild. The county was excited to meet us as we were proclaimed to be a ‘young guild’, with the average age being lower than average nationally! Fame followed soon after as we appeared the national Trefoil Guild magazine the following year, and in its first year gained the status of most increased membership in the county was awarded to the guild.

The sense of adventure and fun continues to develop in the division, several leaders in the division have gained their international license and it is becoming familiar to see girls fundraising for trips abroad. Brownies, Guides and Senior Section members have visited Disneyland Paris and units have travelled to world centres in Switzerland and India. Links have been broadened to guiding from the Unity camp with visits to new friends in Barbados, Canada and the USA.

Cannock was at the forefront of trialling a new section as our younger sisters were introduced, Julie Shirley piloted 1st Hightown Rainbows in 1987, and since then the unit has continued to be popular and Rainbows units are enjoyed throughout the division.

To date Cannock Division proudly has two active Senior Section units, seven Guide units, thirteen Brownie units and nine Rainbow units and has plans to re-build the Chadsmoor Guide hut as a Division Headquarters, leaving a resource and legacy for the future of the division.

In 2006, the shape of the division changed again with Hightown and Fiveways merging into Valley district and Cannock becoming a two district division. Although the inter-district competitions have long since passed, the division still works 71

Divisions

Lapley It’s known that there is an entry in the Stone Log books stating that a leader from Stone, around 1919, came to Gnosall to encourage the setting up of a Guide Unit.

In the County Minute Book of 1920, it is noted that: “The County Commissioner had received a complaint! The school authorities complained that the school work of Guides in Gnosall was suffering in consequence of the girls’ great interest in guiding”.

shortly after the tradition of holding them at Little Onn Hall, Church Eaton, the home of our Division President Mrs Anne Kidson, became the norm. Many social, fundraising events and camps were held in the Hall and grounds. Three innovative camps brought Brownies together under canvas. Sadly this era came to an end around 2004 upon the death of Mrs Kidson, a unique lady much admired by all adult volunteers in Lapley.

The new division adopted a modern approach from the very start; particularly with regard to annual meetings. These social affairs were initially held at the home of our first Division Commissioner, Mrs Vivienne Scouse then 72

Divisions Units in Lapley have always enjoyed doing ‘something different’ from cardboard canoes to pantomimes to amazing adventures!

Lapley’s first challenge, making an enormous clown for Bingley Bonanza in 1981.

On 5th February 1980 Lapley was formally named, the name chosen as it was considered central to the area and of historical interest.

Lapley Division had many training weekends at Waddow Hall. At one of these, while looking for the ‘Millennium Bug’, the ‘Guides for Gambia’ project evolved as an idea to celebrate the Millennium.

Lapley Division Commissioners from 1980: Vivienne Scouse, Pam Keay, Denise Healey, Pauline McKie, Rachel Aston, Alison Johnson, Yvonne Crowe and Fiona Roberts (2017).

17 years later we have had eight division trips to The Gambia, where we have worked and supported Apple Tree School and Bijilo Health Centre and primary school. Campfires on the beach with local Guides and celebrating Thinking Day with them have always been very special occasions.

In the early days, Gnosall, Penkridge and Wheaton Aston belonged to Stafford Division, formed in 1918, as Gnosall District. In 1972, Gnosall District with Cannock and Rugeley became Stafford Woodside Division—around Stafford Division.

Lapley Division Standard was dedicated on 23rd April 1989 at All Saints Church, Lapley, where it can be seen today.

In 1979 Stafford Woodside was split again, and Gnosall District became Lapley Division made up of Gnosall, Penkridge and Wheaton Aston Districts.

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The design includes: Lapley Church, the Cuttlestone Bridge, (all the villages of the division belonged to the medieval Cuttlestone Hundred) and a plough representing the rural heritage of the area.

Divisions

Leek We have a long and rich history of Girlguiding in Leek Division and we would like to share here some of the highlights of the past 100 years since we became part of Girlguiding Staffordshire.

Leek Division is one of the founding divisions of Girlguiding Staffordshire having formed as a division a year earlier than the county in 1916.

One of the earliest dates in our history was a visit to Leek by both Lord and Lady Baden-Powell on 6th June 1920. Unfortunately, we have very little information about their visit other than we know that this was their first visit to the division. Lady Olave Baden-Powell did visit again on her own on 7th February 1944.

Probably the earliest anecdotal history we have was from 1937 when local Guide Leader Miss M Gilman was chosen to take charge of 10 Girl Guides from across Staffordshire who were to attend the Coronation of King George V on 12th May 1937. The 10 Guides were chosen by ballot and one of those Guides was also from Leek Division, Elsie Whiting

A narrative from their adventure states: “Through the kindness of the Board of Education a number of spaces were allotted to the Girl Guide Association and Staffordshire were fortunate in having 11 of these places. Divisions were asked to send in names and these were balloted.”

She goes on to explain the excitement of the guides as they slept at St Jude’s Church Rooms in London the night before the coronation, although they were all too excited to get much sleep. She writes about ‘the magnificent splendour of the procession’ and the ‘small princesses Elizabeth and Margaret waving to the crowds’.

Even then we were offering girls opportunities that they would never be able to experience outside of Girlguiding.

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Divisions In August 1963 the division took a group of girls and leaders on a chalet holiday to Stoos in Switzerland. Here the girls cruised in a steam boat on Lake Thun, went outdoor swimming, visited Blausee Blue Lake and Lake Zurich and even rode the chair lift at Grindelwald. What a fabulous adventure that would be even now!

Girlguiding Leek continues to offer our members amazing adventurous opportunities that were started last century.

with a two week course on the Queen Mary ship studying Marine Biology.

We have a history of being quite musical in Leek Division with Guide bands, choirs and lots of charity singing events. In 1972 a choir made up from girls at Longsdon Brownies won a trip to London after beating other Staffordshire choirs and then other county choirs to be Regional Champions in the Girl Guides National Song Contest. In the finals the girls came a very respectful 2nd place!

In 1967 there was much excitement in the division, when Division Commissioner, Miss Peggie Starling, received an invite saying that the Chief Guide, Lady Olave Baden-Powell would be visiting Staffordshire and addressing a meeting of Brownies and Guides! Such was the excitement around this visit that the division shipped three coach loads of members to the Victoria Hall in Hanley to meet her! Such a day for those girls and leader to remember.

This was probably Lady Baden-Powell’s last visit to the County.

In 1977 the Division took part in lots of Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. Stockton Brook Brownies won 2nd place in a collage competition run by Commonwealth Headquarters whilst Brown Edge Guides designed a plate that was made by Portmerion Pottery and was then sent to Commonwealth Headquarters. During this year, 6th Leek Guides won an award in a band contest in Leek as part of the local Scout & Guide Band.

Throughout the years there has been a steady growth in membership in the division resulting in 1982 having 1,000 members! This is probably the pinnacle of our membership for Leek Division.

It wasn’t just our young membership that was growing either. In 1982 Biddulph Trefoil Guild was registered and had 12 members at opening. By 1983 there were over 80 Trefoil Guild members in the division.

International travel continued to be popular in Leek Division and in 1971 17 year old Olwen Brough, a Ranger Guide from Biddulph was chosen as one of only six girls in the country to attend an international summer camp in Florida

Although we’re now 100 years from when our first Division Commissioner made her promise as part of Girlguiding Staffordshire we still endeavour to continue to grow our membership in Leek.

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Divisions

Lichfield In the beginning there was Girlguiding Lichfield Division, well almost at the beginning!

The earliest records we can find date back to 1916, when 1st Lichfield Company was registered in February of that year. Lichfield was made up of units from the current Lichfield, Needwood and Tamworth Divisions.

The earliest units discovered are 1st Lichfield Guides and 2nd Lichfield Guides, or rather Number 1 Company and Number 2 Company : Lichfield, as they were called.

2nd Lichfield Brownies were certainly in existence in the 1920s so we can only assume that 1st Lichfield were too. By the 1930s 1st Burntwood, 1st Gentleshaw, 1st Whittington and 1st Chase Terrace Guide Companies had all been formed, along with 4th Lichfield Brownies.

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Divisions Units across the division had many picnic’s and camps. They met Lady Baden-Powell on at least two occasions in Lichfield and Gentleshaw in 1943. They began camping exploits back in the 1920s at Beaudesert, Hoar Cross Hall and Cheadle. They had a disabled Guide/Ranger camp in 1955. In 1943 1st Burntwood Guides became the proud owner of some Give-Lend Vouchers. These were given in receipt of money raised for a memorial to Lord Baden-Powell but lent to the Government for the duration of the war to assist the war effort. The memorial was built after the war in 1961 in London at Baden-Powell House.

This is the registration certificate for 1st Burntwood Company, however there is further evidence that they were in existence as early as 1927 in a diary started by Olive West where she says “Hurrah, Hurrah, we’ve won the cup” They beat 2nd Lichfield, Shenstone and 1st Lichfield companies in the Drill Competition.

Past commissioners and leaders, or Guiders, have included Miss Gwen Pepper, Béatrice Corbett, Company Leader and Brown Owl of the 2nd Lichfield Guides and Brownie companies.

Béatrice’s sister Elsie was also a past Guide Captain with 2nd Lichfield. Miss Marshall was a Brown Owl of 2nd Lichfield when they used to meet in the Headmasters House and Hall of King Edwards Grammer School. Mrs Sands was a Commissioner during the 1930s. Miss Doreen Bailey, Mrs Mary Jenks, Gwen Burke, Audrey Sharron, Pauline Cox, Margaret Green, Anne Wheeler, Pat Bird, Margaret Green, Ruth Black, Sheila Craggs, Lesley Knighton, Kathryn DuncanBrown, Gill Underwood and Gaynor Satherley are all past Commissioners.

Guiding in Lichfield continued strongly through the 50s, 60s and 70s with over 20 units being formed. Districts became larger and were split down into smaller districts. We parted from Tamworth in 1977 and have undergone other reorganisations since then into our current four Districts; City, Lynn, Whittington and Burntwood.

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Divisions

Longton Guiding started in Longton with the formation of Dresden Guides on 10th January 1918 closely followed by the Brownies on 9th September 1918.

At the time Longton was a district within Stoke-on-Trent Division which became Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle Division in 1948.

President Mrs G Basil Johnson, (after whose family pottery our new Tuscan District is named) to plant one of the trees. Mrs Joan Turner our Division President planted the Beswick District tree in Mr Beswick’s absence and the Aynsley District tree was planted by Mr John M Aynsley who used for the ceremony the silver spade that his great, great, great Grandfather Alderman John Aynsley (the Mayor of Longton) used in 1887 to cut the first sod which became the 45 acres which form Longton Park.

Longton became a division on 1st April 1974 with three districts. Aynsley, Beswick and Tuscan. Mrs Irene Derricott, Division Commissioner wrote in her report: The highlight of our year was the planting of three Silver Birch trees in Queen’s Park Longton, to commemorate the formation of the new division.

They were honoured to have our County 78

Divisions Mrs Greta Fynn was Aynsley District Commissioner, Mrs Olive Barnacle Beswick and Mrs Jean Broad Tuscan. The Division Team consisted of Maureen Key Secretary and Young Leader Adviser, Joan Turner Treasurer, Teddy Felthouse Camp Adviser, Viv Cotton Pack Holiday Adviser.

Local Association and presented our 1st Queen’s Guide to Jenifer Wilson (Walters) in 1968 and were able to welcome one of the first guides from 1918, namely Mrs Whitfield of Kildare Street Dresden to a Silver Jubilee Celebration in 1978.

In 1984, nationally it was decided that all districts should be named after areas and so Tuscan, Aynsley and Beswick became Edensor, Normacot and Meir. In 1989 Normacot was split to form Adderley Green now combined again but as Adderley Green. In 1993 Edensor split to form Blurton but reverted back soon after and in 1995 Caverswall was transferred to Meir from Threapwood.

Longton Park has been well used for fund raising fun runs, PR carnival events, camp practices and outdoor events over the years.

Since 1974 The Division Commissioners have been Irene Derricott, Teddy Felthouse, Jean Broad, Maureen Key, Mary Bull, Sue Dawson, Jenifer Wilson, Janet Mitchel and Judith Parry.

Division Presidents since 1974 have been Joan Turner, Irene Derricott, Marie Stokes, Kathleen Wildblood, Jean Broad and Maureen Key.

In 1985 members of the division were part of a county group walking 75 miles of the Staffordshire Way. Many Brownies, Guides, Leaders and Trefoil Guild joined them for one of the days. In 1986 7th Longton Dresden Guides represented the Midlands Region as finalists in the British Meat Cooking Competition in the grounds of St Pauls’ Cathedral in London with Mary Berry and John Craven as judges.

In 1990 Longton Guides and Brownies joined others at the County Buildings to helped launch the new uniform designed by Jeff Banks.

Also on 1st April 1974 Staffordshire County split from West Mercia and Longton Division hosted the 1st A.G.M. for the new County at Longton Town Hall.

Longton have one of the few Scout and Guide bands formed in the1960’s and still going today. We have been actively involved in the running of Maer Cottage since Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle acquired it in 1964 and have always had a thriving Trefoil Guild, formally

16th May 2001 a Ranger, Guide, two Brownies and a Leader were asked to be part of the guard of honour when the Queen came to open the National Arboretum in Alrewas.

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Divisions

Needwood We met as a Division rather than Needwood District in August/September 1981. The Division was registered from 1st January 1982 and our first commissioners’ warrants were dated 1st January 1982.

The first Division AGM was held at Alrewas Cricket Club on 23rd March 1983 with the minutes being recorded in a scrapbook.

Needwood Units entered a lot of County competitions and were successful at winning a few.

We attended our first County Brownie Revels as a division in 1983 at the County Showground.

1985. (“75 in ‘85”) The division attended Midlands Region Camp (MAGIC 1985) at Malvern. We invited Girl Scouts from Burlington County, New Jersey as one of our guiders, Diane Harding (now Diane Jones of Lapley Division) had attended an event there and had contacts.

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Divisions 1987. We undertook our first international camp in the U.S.A. in New Jersey at Camp Kettlerun.

Also visited Philadelphia, Washington and New York - we were there for 3 weeks.

which now belongs to Burton Scouts. At that time Rangemore was still a school for the deaf and had a very co-operative headmaster who allowed us to camp at week-ends. We also held activity days there.

1989. We arranged a return visit and had an international camp at Beaudesert where the New Jersey Girl Scouts and Guides from Austria joined us. ROSE ‘89.

Unity ‘92. This was the first county camp preparing for future events. No internationals were invited as it was considered a trial for what we might achieve, and Needwood played a big part in organising this - held at Beaudesert.

1990. We travelled across Europe to Vienna reaching “Vienna 90” camp in the grounds of Laxenburg Castle.

Unity ‘94 was the first large county international camp at Shugborough and they have been held every four years at Shugborough until 2014.

Every Christmas we held a carol service where the girls presented their “Good Turns” raising funds or making items for local charities. Some of the service sheets are in our scrapbooks.

We had regular Division Brownie Revels and camps often held at the Deer Park, Hoar Cross (Beris Henstock’s husband was the farmer), or Rangemore School on the site

Division Commissioners: Susan Treacher Ann Boulby Liz Hill Tracy Waldron Susan Treacher Annette Gould Carol Holmes-Pearce Carol Ridley

1981 - 1991 1992 - 1998 1999 - 2000 2001 - 2002 2003 - 2005 2005 - 2010 2010 - 2013 2013 - present 81

Divisions

Newcastle

Newcastle Division was formed in 1974 and From 1917 to1974 it was part of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle Division Division Commissioners Edna Hallatt Betty Wetherell Glenda Lockley Margaret Davies Janet Groves Clare Holdsworth Ruth Farrell

Oldest surviving unit in Midlands Region. Robert Baden-Powell signed the registration certificate for 1st Newcastle on 30th July 1915.

1974 -1984Â 1984 - 1991 1991 - 1999 1999 - 2004 2004 - 2011 2011 - 2016 2016 - Present

ÂŁ1,100 raised for the new County Headquarters at Hixon with our Cedric Colouring Competition.

The cheque was presented to the County Commissioner at a Division Carol Service.

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Divisions

Our standard design depicts the following: Newcastle Guild Hall is in Central District St Giles Church stands in South District Open book represents Keele University in West District The Pit head represents the many mining villages in West district The wheatsheaf depicts the rural environment of Tern district

43 Units with three new units opening 2018

1st Newcastle celebrated their centenary with a trip to Our Chalet in July 2015.

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Divisions

Rugeley Rugeley Division celebrate their 100th Anniversary in 2018 showing that they have been part of the Staffordshire Guiding community almost from its very beginning.

The first Guide companies we have records of were the 1st and 2nd Rugeley Guides. The 1st was captained by Miss J. Hallet and the 2nd was captained by Miss Bridget Landor. One of the founder members to be enrolled as a guide into the 2nd was Dora Harris, daughter of a local businessman with her sister Cecile following. Dora became captain for many years after Bridget went to India. Cecile became her Lieutenant and between them supported the guide movement for most of their lives.

Subsequently Dora went on to become District

Commissioner and Badge Secretary, a position she still held in our Golden Jubilee year of 1968.

Their older sister Sylvia became the first Cub Scoutmaster of the Rugeley Boy Scout Troop in 1916 due to the call up of so many men for the First World War.

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Divisions All three sisters, staunch supporters of guiding as well as many other community ventures, were founder members of the Rugeley Trefoil Guild in 1955. It had to disband for a while in the early 1980s due to low membership but was revived in 1988 and they too will have an anniversary in 2018.

Many units have come and gone over the years but out of the 23 current units the longest lasting is the 4th Rugeley Guides who have been active for 91 years this year. There are two brownie units who are celebrating 50 years this year and several brownie and guide units who are in their 40’s. Others range down through the decades to some quite recent openings. It’s hard to pin down some of the dates of actual openings as some paperwork has got lost over time, it was long before the digital age when everything could be stored on computer.

Over the years there have been many camps, days out and trips abroad alongside local events such as Thinking Day, and the Remembrance parade.

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Divisions

Stafford The earliest memories for Stafford Division were the registering of the 4th Stafford Guides in 1920 and the 7th Stafford Guides in 1924.

Division Commissioners Mrs Dawes Miss Joyce Gladys Wall Mrs Westhead Mrs Hubball Mrs Kemp Barbara Read Sheila Haggis Norma Wood 86

Isabel Patterson Audrey Betteridge Pat Roberts Pat Strang Fran Omer Julie Tanner Jill Crockett Alison Hyde Jill Crockett Liz Hurst

Divisions Dorothy Dean for whom we shall be ever grateful for her kind donation of funds for our current Headquarters at Hixon was Stafford Division Commissioner in the early 1940’s and had established the 9th Stafford Brownies in 1936.

racecourse. On Good Friday in 1967 Lady Baden-Powell visited Stafford again and we all met her at the station and lined the streets outside. There was a 60th Birthday Rally in 1970 and members from the division travelled over to Walsall Arboretum to join the celebrations.

One interesting story is that in 1943 the then 8th Stafford Brownie leader made her unit new uniforms. Her father was Stafford Market Superintendent and one of the stallholders said he knew of some brown material which was available following a bombing in Manchester.

This was duly purchased and the damaged bits removed to make all the brownies a uniform.

The ties were made from old curtains and the hats from unraveled brown jumpers.

In the 50’s and 60’s many members of Stafford Division were in the Scout and Guide Gang Shows. In 1989 at King Edwards School the division held a show titled Celebration to celebrate 75 years of Guiding. In 2000 the division celebrated the coming of the new millennium by staging MAGIC (Millennium and Guiding in Celebration) which gave Rainbows, Brownies & Guides the opportunity to show their talents to their parents and to raise money for our newly established Division Headquarters – fondly referred to as “the Hut”. In 2010 we joined in the county celebrations for the 100 years of Girlguiding by holding an event for all members at the Ministry of Defense site in Stafford in one of their aircraft hangers.

Over the years the division has been proud to form guards of honour and lined the streets for royal visitors. In 1935 a group of guides went to Wembley for the Guiding Silver Jubilee celebrations. In 1937 the Princess Royal (Princess Mary) came to Stafford and went on to open Beaudesert Camp Site. Lady Baden-Powell came to Stafford’s Thinking Day ceremony in 1943 and in 1956 Princess Margaret was visiting Wolverhampton and Stafford Guides went to see her at the

In 2014 to celebrate the Great Brownie Stay Away we took over Ingestre Hall in Stafford and turned it into our very own “Hogwarts” with a platform 9 ¾, potions and spells and a visit from our very own Hedwig the Owl.

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Divisions

Stoke-on-Trent North Stoke-on-Trent North was formed around 1982 following a split form the former Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle Divisions Stoke-on-Trent North Division was originally part of the larger Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle Division. The division split to become three divisions circa 1974 being Newcastle, Stoke-onTrent and Longton. Stoke-on-Trent split again circa 1982 to form Stoke-on-Trent South and Stoke-on-Trent North Divisions.

The date the first unit opened that is still active is 7th Tunstall Brownies and 7th Tunstall Guides who registered on 2nd February 1938

21 October 1949 Visit to Hanley by World Chief Guide Lady Olave Baden-Powell 88

Divisions 19th February 2010 Visit to Potteries Museum and Art Gallery by HRH Prince of Wales

There are currently three districts in Stoke North namely Tunstall District which is the largest district with ten units, Forest Park (formerly Hanley District and Smallthorne District which merged) with nine units and finally Kidsgrove District with four units.

Names of past Division Commissioners: Imelda Jeffries June Wright Glenys Macintyre Norma Oldham Gillian Bell Suzanne Hulland Toni Ryan Stoke North Division is one of four divisions that are trustees of Copeland Cottage in Maer.

24th May 1998 Dedication of the Maggie Whitehouse Wood at Maer 89

Divisions

Stoke-on-Trent South Stoke South Division as we know it today was formed in 1983 but the story starts much earlier than that.

We know guiding was active locally prior to 1974 as Fenton had been a separate district.

Records tells us that Mrs Fox, a future commissioner was enrolled in 5th Fenton Guide Company at Temple Street but during the war all Fenton units closed. In 1961 the first unit re-opened at Temple Street and was known as 11th Stoke Brownies. On the other hand, guiding in Trentham had continued throughout the war with Mrs Grimwade as guider.

which comprised six districts, Newcastle, Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke and Longton.

Stoke District had units in Trent Vale, Penkhull, Hartshill, Boothen, Stoke, Fenton, Trentham, Bentilee, Bucknall and Werrington.

In January 1971 Stoke District divided into two, with Mrs Florence Fox as Commissioner for Stoke Central District and Miss Beryl Dale Commissioner for Stoke North District. When the Stoke districts split it would have been possible to change the titles of the units but as flags and pennants had already been purchased

Originally Stoke-on-Trent South Division was part of “Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle Division�

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Divisions using the old titles it would have been very expensive to change. Therefore Stoke had to remain in the title although the districts have changed over the years.

During the 1990s, having seen the new county standard, Peggy Hewitt and Joan Miller both stalwarts of our division suggested that we had a division standard as an emblem of the unity of our districts. A design was agreed, a sewing team mobilised and the standard was born. All the division members were given the opportunity to add stitches to the standard and within the flag is enclosed a tea towel with the names of all those who contributed, many of whom are still actively guiding today.

In 1974 Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle Division was split into three divisions comprising Longton, Stoke and Newcastle with Imelda Jeffrey as commissioner for Stoke. When in 1983 Stoke Division spilt again into Stoke North and Stoke South Divisions Pat Boden became Stoke South Division Commissioner.

Indeed, one of the greatest strengths of Stoke South Division is the number of leaders who began their guiding journey in units within the division.

Since 1983 we have had a succession of Division Commissioners including June Robinson, Karen Alexander, Helen Lines, Joy Morris, Sue Cooke, Liz Joy, Paula Holdcroft and Anne Longbottom.

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Divisions

Stone Division came into being in February, 1919 and Mrs ButlerHenderson was appointed the first division commissioner.

Stone and Eccleshall Stone Division came into being in February, 1919 and Mrs Butler -Henderson was appointed the first division commissioner. Uniform in those early days was different from today’s. Hats were large, skirts respectfully long and stockings black. Commissioners wore distinctive cords according to rank. Guiding began in Eccleshall in 1927. Many companies and packs were formed in the outlying villages and communities some miles from the town itself which together formed Eccleshall District.

Stone for waste papers, these were stored in an empty building in Stafford Street. On July 19th 1919, which was Peace Day, 1st Stone Guides still the only company in the town, took part in their first civic event when they attended an open air service of thanksgiving in a fields adjoining Christ Church Vicarage.

The division was well represented at many national events. During 1929/30 the units in the division raised money to help build the “Guide House” in London. The 2nd Stone Guides took their contribution of 12/6d. direct to Headquarters when they visited London on April 8th, 1931. The main reason for the visit was to provide a guard of honour to Miss Irene Helen Candy, who had been a Lieutenant and member of 2nd Stone Guides for nine years, on her marriage to the Hon. Patrick Berkeley Moynihan, son and heir to Lord Moynihan, at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster.

From early days camping was always popular and enjoyed by all, Mrs D Foster one of 1st Stone’s earliest members recalls: “I enjoyed wonderful weeks in camps among delightful friends. The week was never long enough.”

During the 1st World War the guides gave concerts for the wounded “Tommies” who were housed in St Josephs Hall. Twice a week they took a hand cart and visited every house in 92

Divisions The Division has also taken part in many county events over the years, including Lady BadenPowell’s visits in 1929 and 1943. The division also joined the county to welcome the Princess Royal to a mass rally of guides at Trentham Gardens in June 1929. Representatives from 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Stone companies acted “The order of chivalry” when the Princess visited the Stone Division display. Those guides not fortunate enough to be chosen to go to the actual event lined the route as the Princess’s car passed through Stone from Sandon Hall. Also in 1938 Stone Division were represented when the Princess Royal opened the camp site at Beaudesert. The opening ceremony took place in the old walled garden, part of which involved Brownies from throughout the County hiding under large umbrellas until given a signal and then a march past took place.

In 1956 Stone Division took part in the County Eisteddfod. In the Brownie section the division came 5th with the Oulton Pack taking 1st place with their scrap book and thus had the honour of it being exhibited before Princess Margaret when she visited the county later in the year. On Saturday, 16th June 1973 the Guide President Princess Margaret officially opened the guide training centre at Maer. Among the 4,000 Guides, Brownies and Rangers present were a hundred from Stone and a large group from Eccleshall. Stone Division Commissioner Mrs Pat Bigham had the honour of being presented to the Princess and her Royal Highness also spoke to a number of the Brownies and Guides.

Tragedy struck in 1981 when the Division Headquaters suffered a fire, however the division was not deterred and plans were

immediately started to acquire a replacement building. Lots of fundraising started with “buy a brick” initiative and a handicraft stall. Donations were received from Stone Town Council, Stone Borough Council and other organisations.The new Wells Bladen Centre opened in 1982.

Rainbows celebrated their 5th Birthday in 1993.

“Down on the Farm” an event held at various venues but for Stone at Shugborough in June 19th. Many different farm animal type activities were enjoyed by all and our Division Rainbows proudly displayed their “Scarecrow Sam” badges.

The old headquarters has been loved and cherished and been the venue for unit meetings, trainings and pack holidays. Over the years numerous improvement and maintenance projects have been undertaken which would not have been possible without the dedication and hardwork of leaders, husbands, parents and other organisations who have played their part in maintaining the building. On 2nd July 2017, the division moved to a new headquarters located at Westbridge Park.

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Divisions

Stone Outward Stone Outward Division was formed on 22nd February 2002. Previously being Stone Outward District as part of Stone Division.

It enabled girls from the villages surrounding Stone i.e. Aston and Little Stoke, Yarnfield, Tittensor, Barlaston and Oulton to access Girlguiding. Our oldest recorded unit was formed in 1922, Barlaston Guides so although a new division there is a lot of history behind us.

Stone Outward Division’s first Division Commissioner was Maureen Recine followed by Lisa Ramsey. Maureen took over the reins again until Judith Woods was appointed in 2012 and Deb Turner in 2017.

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They have had the support of two Presidents, Irene Rickinson and Barbara Ewart.

Over the years travel has featured in the programme with girls travelling to many destinations far and near. Knowsley Safari Park and taking a ferry across the Mersey was a favourite. Two coaches took excited girls for a fun day, and the singing on the way home could turn heads. Hiring a train to London for the day, a debate in the staged “House of Commons”, leader weekends away in London with a show,

Divisions

a weekend at Euro Disney, camps at Our Chalet in Switzerland and then more ambitiously a Kenyan link was born in 2005. Girls and leaders have been selected to join teams who have carried out five service projects and made a real difference to lives of many children and created an amazing link with guiding friends.

Theatre in London where the cast met our President, The Countess of Wessex. Over two thousand girls and leaders have been given the chance to take to stage, conquer fears, make new friends, have an amazing experience and a lot of fun.

Mother and daughter camps were born in the early 80’s to give the opportunity for mums to experience life under canvas with their offspring.

These were excellent weekends and brought new faces to guiding.

A Handful of Songs, the division’s biannual variety show, was first performed in 1975.

Maureen Recine, as Captain of 1st Barlaston Guides, decided to put on a show for the senior citizens of Barlaston at Christmas and no one would have believed that it would continue for 43 years. It is now a professionally run show at the Rep Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent running for a whole week. The show has been taken to Birmingham Symphony Hall and the Mermaid

Camping and pack holidays have featured annually with many girls having the chance to enjoy the out of doors and over the last few years we have found a venue to hold events for all sections to go away together for the weekend which has been great fun.

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Divisions

Tamworth The Guiding movement in Tamworth stretches back a long way with girls and leaders finding friendship and fun. Our Division was officially formed in February 1918.

However newspaper articles indicate that there was an Amington Guide Unit in 1914 which raised some money to send “comforts to Amington men at the front.”

In September 1943 Lady Baden-Powell visited the area and viewed a large parade which included approximately 100 members from Tamworth.

Julia Findley, a Patrol Leader at Glascote Guides is reported to have passed all her tests to become one of the first two Queen’s Guides in Staffordshire in early 1948.

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We are currently comprised of 8 Rainbow Units 14 Brownie Units 7 Guide Units Senior Section Trefoil Guild.

Divisions 1st Tamworth Guides and Brownies as featured in an old newspaper article (date unknown) when they were trying to recruit more members in order to survive.

We have our own Standard which is carried on special occasions. This hangs in St. George’s Chapel within the Church of St. Editha, Tamworth where it can be viewed by all.

Margaret Wright, formerly of 1st Tamworth Guides, and ex-Division Commissioner for Tamworth recalls “Over the years many units have opened and in the 1980`s Rainbows arrived. Over the years there have been interesting and exciting times. In the 1950s 1st Glascote Guides went on a cycling trip to Holland and much later Fazeley Guides went to Switzerland. Stoneydelph Guides had a holiday in Ireland. In 1973 we had a big rally on the castle grounds with the Scouts and another rally and carnival in 1985 to celebrate 75 years of Guiding.”

At some point in time we were joined with Lichfield Division but as numbers grew that became impractical and Tamworth became a division it its own right.

There have been changes to the structure of the division over the years and we currently have three districts named St Editha’s, Vincent and Watling. Our president is Pearl Storr, as pictured with Marie Hames at our Diamond Vintage Fair to celebrate and thank Pearl who has been a member for over 60 years. She has been a great mentor to many leaders and young women in Tamworth whilst still helping out at 1st Glascote Guides on a regular basis.

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Divisions

Threapwood Cheadle Division first started in 1933 and later joined with Uttoxeter in 1949 and were known as ‘Cheadle/Uttoxeter Division’.

In 1982 the division name was changed to ‘Threapwood Division’ and in 1995 Uttoxeter left Threapwood and formed their own Uttoxeter Division.

The division has been at the forefront of all guiding events especially when Lady BadenPowell, World Chief Guide, came to visit North Staffordshire in 1967.

Threapwood Division Commissioners from past to present day include:

The division standard was designed by several members of the division along Mr Heritage who liaised with The Guide Association, London – Association Heraldry Adviser. The design was checked and altered as required to meet guiding requirements. A dedication of the division standard in May 2000 at St Mary’s

Janet Ashley, Mary Edwards, Barbara Bidgood, Janet Nicholls, Sue Parry and Sandra Walker.

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Divisions Church, Draycott-in-the-Moors. The service comprised of the dedication of the standard, a poem and the meaning of the standard symbols read by Stella Heritage, Guide Beatitudes read

by Barbara Bidgood, a reading read by Lesley Durose and prayers led by Mary Edwards Division Commissioner at the time.

The project was in a village called Shanzu in Mombasa, Kenya. The division team selected were called ‘TWINKLE’ – Threapwood Women Inspiring New Kenyan Life Experiences. There project involved fundraising and sending money out to have a church built in Shanzu and to provide a porridge kitchen for the pastor and his wife to run from the church. The girls raised £50,000 for the building work and when they finally arrived in Kenya in 2016 they finished the interior by painting and decorating the church and the pastors house, making an altar, providing water and electricity and tiling the kitchen, also providing a summer school for the village children which was a valuable experience for the girls.

Threapwood Division comprises of three districts: Cheadle, Forsbrook and Churnet Valley.

We now have 22 units in the division that consist of Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Senior Section and we also have Cheadle & Uttoxeter Trefoil Guild members who help us out regularly at events. The division is growing and for the future need to recruit more leaders to accommodate our waiting lists.

Whilst on the project the girls had opportunities to see the local surroundings and even went on a two-day safari. They all have made lifelong friends with the villagers in Kenya and write regularly. We met the local Guide and Brownie units who held a campfire for us and made us very welcome.

All our units are very active taking the girls on pack holidays, Guide camps lots of international trips over the years. This year we had our first Rainbow sleepover when the division celebrated 100 years of Girlguiding in Staffordshire by taking them to Alton Castle for a medieval sleepover with girls from all units attending.

It was hard work but such a worthwhile project and everyone is hoping to go out again in 2020!

Pictured (left) our TWINKLE team entering Tsavo East National Park for a safari.

The leaders are providing lots of life long experiences, valuable skills and knowledge, they are making lifelong friends and having lots of fun along the way!

In 2015 Threapwood Division were very excited to take part in an international project led by our County Commissioner Maureen Recine.

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Divisions

Uttoxeter

Having made the decision to separate from the original Uttoxeter & Threapwood Division for practical reasons, the current Uttoxeter Division was formed on 11th October 1994 under the leadership of Division Commissioner Brenda Cooper.

It consisted of three districts, Rocester led by Margaret Jukes, Uttoxeter Town led by Jean Higgins and Marchington Woodlands led by Hazel Berrisford. Together the districts had a total of three Rainbow units, eight Brownie units, three guide units plus a ranger/venture unit, with a total of 230 girls enjoying a wide range of activities organised by an experienced and enthusiastic team of leaders.

Guide Leader Janyce Rhodes, whose daughter Alison ably continues the guiding tradition.

The division has always been very keen on community activities which have included planting a wild-flower meadow in Bramshall Road Park, running stalls at town events, litter picking, Christmas cracker night, carol singing and always having an excellent turnout at Uttoxeter’s Remembrance service and parade.

Over the years, fluctuating numbers and challenges in recruiting leaders has led to changes in division organisation. On 20th April 2004 the decision was made to disband the three districts and continue to operate under the one division umbrella. This was under the joint tutelage of Alison Rhodes and Hazel Berrisford. By this point, our numbers had changed and we had four Rainbow units, seven Brownie units and three Guide units plus the Ranger/Venture unit in Rocester.

Throughout 2001 Uttoxeter Division worked together to create our beautiful standard, which was dedicated on 23rd April 2002, in memory of

Uttoxeter marked the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002 with a Red White & Blue Tea Party.

Our Division Commissioner, Pam King, was honoured to be present at a celebration service attended by the Queen at the National Memorial Arboretum.

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Divisions Training events at division and county levels are also very well attended as well as trips to the training & activity centres at Waddow and Broneirion. Our Trefoil Guild members are also keen travellers to World Centres and lots of other fascinating places.

Across the years, the division has maintained links with our Scouting colleagues, offering several joint events including St George’s Day, carol services and offering practical support as required, such as catering for large scale events.

In May 2009, after many years in a commissioner role, Hazel Berrisford stepped down but she continues to offer invaluable support at both division and county levels.

at the Staffordshire County Showground, the event having been organised by a team led by our current Division Commissioner Chris James.

Uttoxeter members are keen bell boaters and our leader team are proud to have won the regatta at Manor Park eight times in the last 13 years!

On 1st May 2017 we were delighted to welcome Abbots Bromley into our division and we look forward to many exciting guiding activities for girls and leaders as we move into our next 100 years of Staffordshire guiding.

2010 saw Uttoxeter mark the Girlguiding Centenary with a wonderful exhibition of girlguiding memorabilia and a campfire for all members was held in the shadow of the Dancing Diggers at JCB, as well as participating in all of the county activities and celebrations.

In early 2011, Alison Rhodes stepped down after seven years as Division Commissioner, then moving into Outdoor Activities where she has led a very successful Unity 2014 with another camp to come in 2018! Jo Green succeeded Alison in the role of Division Commissioner and continued to develop guiding activities in the local area.

The Big Brownie Birthday in 2014 saw our Brownies enjoying an action-packed weekend at Smallwood Manor, and then joining with Brownies from all over Staffordshire for a funday

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Uttoxeter, despite being a small division, prides itself on its attendance at county events including: ’85 in 95’, which celebrated 85 years of Girlguiding in 1995 Staffordshire Way Challenge in April 1997, this being completed by several of our Leaders ‘2000 Steps’ event held at Oldfields Hall Middle School in 2000 Regular ‘Blow Play Days’ County Brownie Revels and Brownie holidays Big Gigs Unity camps Water activity days including bell boat regatta Numerous pack holidays and days out a-plenty and other international adventures.

Celebration 2017

January Collect 100 unwanted items and recycle them in an interesting way for a charity.

February Find 100 ex-members and present their stories in an interesting way.

March Design a car for the future and make a model of it.

May Make a Girlguiding themed scarecrow and display it in your community.

June Get the glitter out and go wild! Prepare your carnival costume for Sparkle.

July Get your entire unit in or on the water.

September Strictly dance your way through the decades.

October Dress up in old uniforms and hold a fashion show.

November Visit somewhere in Staffordshire that you’ve never been before.

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Celebration 2017

Challenges We launched our Staffordshire Celebrates challenge on 1st January 2017. Our first challenge was to ‘collect 100 unwanted items and recycle them in an interesting way’. We were absolutely overwhelmed with the response and the amazing photographs we received.

April Take a picture of a leader at the highest point possible.

Each month throughout the year we launched a new challenge on the 1st day of the month. Units around the county waited in anticipation for the release of each challenge. The challenges remained a heavily guarded secret until they were launched.

Early on in the year units had great fun finding out about past members of guiding, designing futuristic cars, getting to the highest point possible and even covering Staffordshire in scarecrows throughout May.

August Think outside the box and sleep under the stars.

June’s challenge was to decorate your t-shirt ready for Sparkle.

We may have caused a national shortage of glitter judging by the sparkling t-shirts on the day!

Towards the end of the year we asked units to get wet, sleep under the stars and dance their way through the decades.

Units did so well to complete their challenges and to gain their Staffordshire Celebrates challenge badge.

December Fill a time capsule and bury it.

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Celebration 2017

Sparkle What a fabulous day we all had at Sparkle.

It was advertised as Girlguiding Staffordshire’s “biggest and best event of the past 100 years” and it certainly delivered on that!

Almost 7,000 of our members and invited guests joined together at the Staffordshire County Showground where they visited the ‘Mega Zone’, the ‘Fun House’ and ‘Glitter Ballz’ areas. Girls were able to choose from a whole host of exciting activities from exhilarating fairground rides to enormous inflatables and hilarious silent discos through to a challenging low ropes course. There really were just so many activities to choose from it was impossible to fit them all in!

At the end of the day a carnival procession of the divisions paraded into the central arena in their decorated t-shirts with different colours representing the different divisions. Here they were treated to an array of exciting acts.

First up were the Disney Dazzle Princesses and we all sang along to well-known Disney songs. They were followed by Robbie Williams and Olly Murs tribute acts. The finale was the fabulous Flawless who wowed us all with their stunning dance routines.

It truly was a day that will be remembered by everyone who attended. A massive thank you to everyone who helped make this magical day possible.

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Celebration 2017

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Celebration 2017

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Celebration 2017

Staffopoly Our Staffopoly event was a fun and exciting team challenge game around Stafford town centre. Teams of up to eight people competed for the most points at a series of challenge bases around the town. Each base represented a different division in Girlguiding Staffordshire.

The challenges ranged from testing people’s tent pitching skills at the Beaudesert Camp challenge through to stimulating everyone’s creative skills with the ‘design your own coat of arms’ challenge for the Stoke South base.

Extra points could be gained for selfies with Stafford’s work force or even by completing Chance and Community Chest Challenges – but beware, if you picked the wrong card you could be sent to GAOL! Our EST team provided two very efficient police officers to ensure fair play.

Staffopoly was enjoyed by all sections from Rainbows through to the Trefoil Guild. It was great to see so many members of the public on board with our challenges and willing the teams to victory!

Trophies were awarded to the winning team in each section. The Rainbow trophy went to 1st Trent Rainbows. The Brownie trophy went to 1st Stockton Brook Brownies. The Guide trophy went to 1st Rocester Guides and the adult trophy went to Tamworth Trefoil Guild.

Everyone who took part received a certificate from the Mayor of Stafford and a beautiful badge.

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Celebration 2017

India On 1st August 2017 11 members of Girlguiding Staffordshire met at Birmingham International Airport to start their 18-day trip to India. We arrived in Mumbai early morning on 2nd August and after a four hour bus journey with lots of hooting and cows in the road we arrived at Sangam, Pune our home for the next 11 Days.

We were there to participate in an event called Discovering Your Potential lll which included a Community Action Project working with one of Sangam’s Community Partner Organisations.

Building friendships and learning about the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts’ latest global initiatives was part of our programme. We also learnt about

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the traditions of India and discovering the city of Pune.

During our stay we climbed 3500 feet to the top of Tikona Fort unfortunately the mist came down and we were unable to enjoy the views although it lifted as we started our descent. We used local transport to get about when we went to shop in the vegetable market, Indian sweet shop, Sari shop and bangle alley. We spent three days with Community Partners working in Creches and Schools teaching children crafts, games and English.

Celebration 2017

After saying goodbye to all our new friends we flew to Delhi and began a five day tour of the Golden Triangle which included seeing the Lotus Temple, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, the biggest Sikh temple in New Delhi, Jama Masjid, a mosque built in 1644 and took a rickshaw ride around the narrow streets of the bazaar.

We travelled to Agra to see the Red Fort and Taj Mahal and then on to Jaipur to visit the Amber fort and Summer Palace.

We returned to Delhi to fly home.

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Celebration 2017

Mexico After setting off early morning on Friday 28th July 2017 from Hixon and a long day of travelling we arrived in Mexico! For the first part of our trip we stayed at Ticalli (Guides of Mexico’s Guide house and national offices). We had an incredible five days staying in Mexico City. We visited the main avenue where we tackled the two way roundabout to go to the Angel Statue of Independence, the sun and moon pyramids and a cactus farm. We also had an exceptionally posh meal in the revolving restaurant on the 45th floor of the Mexican world trade centre and overlooked the whole of Mexico city. We had a five course meal as the sun set.

museum where we loked at a variety of paintings, bones and stones.

After a great five days in Mexico City, we were on our way to Cuernavaca and Our Cabaña on the Thursday. We were greeted very warmly by all of the staff and were showed to our rooms when we arrived. Later that night was the first of the many activities that we would participate in- icebreakers.

It gave us all a chance to get to know the other girls that would be taking part in the event, potentially making new friends.

While staying at Ticalli we also walked through downtown México - an area brimming with local culture whilst still boasting of beautiful architecture and sculptures at the same time- and visited a never ending maze of markets, with our final day in Mexico City was spent at the park and the anthropology

On the Saturday we played the Mexico game.

Splitting off into six teams we worked our way around the stations that had been set up as challenges. Beginning with a code breaker from Baden-Powell, followed by pick up cups, make a pyramid using string and elastic bands, making Guacamole, collecting ten flowers from the pool,

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Celebration 2017 and our final challenge was to get over to Mixocali and paint each other’s faces with a semi-intricate dia de los muertos skull. In the evening we had the 60th party with a very hot and sticky Salsa lesson and also a photo booth. Dinner was an incredible feast of Mexican food including potato crisps on a stick with hot sauce. We all sang Happy Birthday to Our Cabaña and they had a cake with Iggy the Iguana and cupcakes. Once dinner was over we all headed over to the fountain area and waited in line for a turn on the Piñata. It was all made much more exciting when the Marache band showed up and gave us a show for a few hours!

While at Our Cabaña we took part in a service project. Ours was working with children from the local orphanage. We played various games in Spanish and then gave all 50 orphans temporary tattoos from Sparkle. We then played parachute games including their names and fun facts all in Spanish as a group. We also used the inflatable balls and played different parachute games which they all absolutely loved!

We had a fabulous day on the Tuesday waterfall jumping. We walked downhill stopping at various sized waterfalls. Jumping into the water was quite refreshing! We ducked under waterfalls and swam in the pool underneath them. After completing a few of the smaller jumps it was soon time for the six and ten metre jumps. It was nerve racking at times due

to the look down before you jumped but the majority of the group completed all of the jumps!

Also while at Our Cabaña, we enjoyed an international evening, we took a ride on Our Cabaña airways visiting all of the places where everyone comes from. We had stops varying from south England to the top of the UK in Scotland and then all the the way to Canada, Mexico, Paraguay, Venezuela and the USA. Here we showed off our fabulous bag dance which gave everyone a good laugh. We were obviously the best one! Dinner was a variation of foods from around the world.

After some tearful goodbyes we headed back to Ticalli on Friday 11th August and enjoyed dinner at El Mexicano where fajitas were a popular choice. We then sat and discussed the favourite parts of the trip and enjoyed our last night in Mexico together.

We all had the most amazing, fun filled, happy, emotional, exciting, cultural, friendship and memory making week and our Journey was finally at the end.

We were all glad to see our families waiting for us at Hixon but we will have this amazing trip to remember forever!

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Pax Lodge On the morning of 28th July 2017, we met at Stafford Train Station to start our adventure in London, we arrived at Euston station at lunch time, and headed straight to Pax Lodge by taking the tube, this was adventure in its self for some of the guides as they had never been on the underground before.

When we arrived at Pax Lodge the sun was shining and we sat outside in the grounds to enjoy a picnic lunch before going to our rooms to unpack. After this we headed into the City, we started the Pax Lodge challenge as we had sites to see in London, one of the challenges was to visit Girlguiding HQ, we were able to look around and visit the shops.

After this we went to Buckingham Palace, the girls were amazed by its size, we walked around to see as much as we could in the area but unfortunately the weather wasn’t on our side and the heavens opened; so we got on a double decker bus, which took us past more sights such as Big Ben and the

House of Parliament. We then went for a lovely meal out before heading back to Pax Lodge to complete more of the challenge.

On the Saturday morning after breakfast we took part in the flag raising ceremony, this was a fabulous experience and the girls read readings and helped with the flag raising. This set us up for the day, we again headed into the City and the girls wanted to visit the Science Museum, we spent the morning looking around and having fun with the hands-on experiments. When we left it was lunch time we watched some street entertainers before sitting in the Victoria and Albert Museum to eat our lunch as again the rain fell. After lunch we had a walk and went to Leicester Square as the girls wanted to visit M&M World, after that we walked to Trafalgar Square (another part of the challenge). At this point the rain was really heavy and we had to bring the day to a close and we decided to head back to Pax Lodge,

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Celebration 2017 we ended the day with pizza and getting our Pax Lodge Challenge badges.

On the Sunday morning we packed our bags and again took part in the flag raising ceremony before we left Pax Lodge for the final time, but it wasn’t time for home just yet, we had another challenge to complete (Pax Lodges, Harry Potter Challenge), we headed for the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Watford, we had an amazing few hours looking at the props and sets that were used in the films. After a long and exciting day, we headed back to the Watford Junction station and headed back home. We arrived back at Stafford Station at around 7pm to be greeted by happy parents who were excited to hear all about our weekend adventure.

Poacher Poacher International Jamboree was attended by a contingent from Staffordshire. We took a party of 12 girls for the week’s camp held at Lincoln County Showground. There were around 6000 participants and a further 3000 volunteers.

A great week was had by all.

We were on Historical Legends sub camp.

There was a huge range of activities ranging from abseiling, canoeing, zorbing, go karting, sub aqua to name just a few. We had two activities off site where we visited Lincoln and Lincoln Castle.The girls had their first taste of international camping and I’m sure it will spur them on to go further a field next time.

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Switzerland To celebrate 100 Years of Girlguiding Staffordshire 21 members were selected to visit Our Chalet in Switzerland on a County International trip during the Summer.

We travelled by coach from 28th July to 6th August 2017. The journey was very long but the girls were in good spirits, very excited and sang along to High School Musical.

When we finally arrived in Adleboden we were taken to the chalet we were going to be staying in which was stunning, three levels high and the views were amazing!

Our schedule was very exciting and had been chosen after the girls had voted on a variety of activities.

We visited Interlaken for the Chocolate Show, Blausee to see the beautiful blue lake, Kandersteg for the toboggan run, hiked to the Woodcarvers and the Chloren Gorge, Jungfrau the highest point in Europe to see the ice sculptures and amazing views, Adventure Park for zip wiring with an afternoon at the swimming pool and a very enjoyable night at the Swiss Night which we travelled to Berglager via a cable car.

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Our Chalet was very special, we had a guided tour and a pinning ceremony. It was a very emotional experience as a lot of us had always wanted to visit the World Centre owned by WAGGGS and explore the history of Girlguiding.

Three members made their Promise and lots of souvenirs were bought from the shop.

The girls and the team had an amazing time!

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Kenya Our journey began eighteen months before we left for Kenya when 16 girls, five leaders and a group of 13 adult leaders were selected to travel to Kenya.

Right from the beginning our trip was always going to be something special.

The day of our departure finally arrived, we took off from Manchester, for our connecting flight to Istanbul through to Mombasa, however our suitcases, all 64 of them decided to remain in Istanbul for a little while longer!

The challenge for our trip was set. The girls project was called ‘A place to Call Home’ with an aim to find and renovate a house so that a newly formed foster family could move in creating a new family unit. Whilst the adult group would renovate seven bedrooms and a sitting room at the Guide Centre in Shanzu, all in just one week!

Both groups set to work on their projects, alongside this the girls ran five days of summer school, which everyone found extremely rewarding. Despite the limited resources and often limited English / Swahili the children beamed with happiness at the activities we provided.

Preparation for our trip involved collecting as many resources as possible for both our projects. The girls also learnt skills such a painting, joinery and tiling.

Alongside this there was summer school sessions to prepare and lots of fundraising.

Alongside our work we had the opportunity to visit many local places of interest, experiencing the Kenyan culture. We saw a range of animals during our visit to Haller Park. We experienced shopping on the beach and a visit to Joshua’s church where we took part in the Sunday morning worship. A mountain top moment was experienced during

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Celebration 2017 our visit to Nguni Park which we shared with the street boys from the home in Kikambala. To see the giraffes so close and to sit around the campfire as the sun set across such a beautiful, peaceful landscape was magical.

The adult group’s project was the first to be completed. On the opening day we were welcomed by smiling Brownies and Guides. The rooms were unveiled, they were beautiful, and the elation on the girls’ faces as they saw their new rooms was very moving. This was followed by a very memorable campfire with all our guiding friends.

It was then time for the completion of the girls project. As the family entered their new home their smiling faces and their stunned silence told us just how much they liked their new home. The girls had excelled themselves and in the days after we began to learn just what an impact our work had on our new family, as each child began to settle and blossom in to a happy, bubbly child.

plains with Kilimanjaro in the distance and having elephants exploring the watering hole outside our bedroom window is something none of us will ever forget.

As our trip came to an end we spent four days on safari. Despite the long journeys the beauty and vastness of the landscape was breath taking. Seeing all of the “big five” as well as many other animals was amazing. Watching the sun set over the African

To conclude both the trip and the centenary celebrations in Staffordshire we were privileged to visit the final resting place of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell.

We are the only group in the world to have a plaque laid there to commemorate our centenary visit. As we stood around the grave renewing our promise looking out towards Mount Kenya, we each realised we were part of something so much bigger and as a County we had ‘gone home’ to the place of our founders.

As a group, words will never be enough to explain just what we experienced and what a profound effect it has had on each one of us. It was a fitting finale to mark 100 years of guiding in our County.

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A big Thank You to everyone who has made this book possible.

It has captured the History of Girlguiding Staffordshire perfectly

The authors of this book have made every effort to ensure that the information contained within it is correct at the time of print. They have also made every effort to avoid copyright infringement. They apologise for any inaccuracies within it.

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A huge THANK YOU to every member of Girlguiding Staffordshire who has helped to make this a truly outstanding County over the last 100 years!

Here’s to the next 100 ‌

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