YOULBURY Activity Centre is celebrating 100 years’ service to the Scout movement.
The wooded area at Boars Hill, near Oxford, where the centre is based, was first used as a meeting place and camping field in 1913 by Scouts from nearby Wootton.
They had asked the site owner, Sir Arthur Evans, if they could camp on his land.
He not only said yes, but told them he would build a log cabin for their use.
Robert Baden Powell, who had founded the Scouts in 1908, heard about the arrangement and told Sir Arthur he would like a base to train leaders there. Sir Arthur offered to build it for him.
When Sir Arthur died in 1941, the same year as Baden Powell, he had already given permission for the Scout Association to continue its activities at Youlbury.
The whole site was put up for sale, but Sir Arthur had stipulated that the Scouts should have first refusal. The association snapped up the whole site for £3,800.
During the Second World War, part of the site was requisitioned by the RAF as a radar station.
The radar tower remained after the war and the Scouts converted it into a climbing tower.
The wooden hut occupied by the Wootton troop was demolished in the early 1980s, but the hut used to train leaders still survives.
Thousands of Scouts from all over the world have taken part in activities at Youlbury, including swimming, archery, shooting, climbing, orienteering, go-karting and, of course, camping.
The site is run by a warden, Neil Addington, and a team of volunteers.
Youlbury is now undergoing an extensive improvement programme with new buildings, the first of which was opened on Saturday at an event marking the 100th anniversary.
The museum of Scout memorabilia, run by Peter Slatter and formerly by the late John Kirby, which has been on the site for many years, will close for a while, but the Scout Association has promised to provide a new building for it as part of the reorganisation.
See next week’s Memory Lane for more pictures of Scouts at Youlbury.