Our History

Scouting was started by Robert Baden Powell in 1907 and Longford Scouts was started a year later. A group of boys in June 1908 asked William Ernest Gregson to umpire a game they were going to play and that led to him started a Scout Troop, “First Longford”, in his home, Wansbeck House. Very soon thanks to the officers of Union Church they moved into the School Room. Union Church is the building at the corner of Kenwood Rd and Edge Lane. By 1910 the number of Scouts had risen to 32. In 1911 the Chief Scout Sir Robert Baden-Powell visited the Headquarters in the Union Church and during that year a “Training Squad” was started for boys aged between 7 and 11 which paved the way for the setting up of Wolf Cubs. At a meeting of Longford’s “Court of Honour on 4th Sept 1912 “the matter of new headquarters was discussed and it was decided to ask for the use of the Shippon and adjoining buildings, failing this the workshop” in the newly acquired Longford Park. “The rent was 1/6 (71/2p) per week. It was found that we can only have the use of 4 rooms. The Council are only putting a door in for us. We have to remove the shippons ourselves”. On 21st December 1912 all the alterations had been done and Councillor Williams opened the new headquarters at 3.15pm and activities and celebrations went on into the late evening.

The Group has remained in existence ever since. Obviously over such a long period of time the strength of the Group has varied but it has tried to remain true to Scouting principals. Major changes were made to the interior of the building in 1985 when toilets in the building were provided for the first time and in 2010/12 when a new room, the Denis Taylor Room, was created downstairs and the kitchen refurbished.

Over the years there have been Summer Camps most years starting in 1909 when a camp was held in Lime Rd. and some have been abroad. In 1913 a party of about 28 went to Dublin travelling down the Manchester Ship Canal before crossing the Irish Sea.