1. Newcastle Cub Leaders Race for life
2. 74th Silverdale Scout Group hold a Founders Day Service
3. Scouts on Target with Success at the start of Centenary Year
4. Cannock Sea Scouts Achieve Royal Navy Recognition
5. Wheaton Aston Sea Scouts Clean up at The V Concert
6. Wheaton Aston Sea Scouts win First Prize at the Village Carnival
7. Wheaton Aston Raft Race
8. County Show
9. Newcastle has a High
10. Wheaton Aston Sea Scouts

Newcastle Cub Leaders Race for life

Sharon Whittlestone, Laura Alcock, Barbara Davies, Adele Higginbottom, Janet Hammond, Rachel Gray and Karen Timmis and Emma Searl, all Cub Leaders in Newcastle District, Completed the Stafford Run for Life on 9 September, after the event had twice been postponed over the summer due to heavy rain.

The CSLs undertook the challenge over 5 Kms in memory of Mandy Buxton, long serving CSL and AGSL from 77th Audley, who sadly died of cancer in April 2007. She was consoled during the final weeks of her illness by the notification that she had been awarded the Medal of Merit for her outstanding services to Scouting; the award was accepted at her funeral by her daughter Mrs Lucy Prince, CSL at 77th Audley.

The Cub Leaders anticipate that when all the promised sponsorship money has been paid, they will have met their target of raising £1000 for Cancer Research in memory of Mandy, who is sadly missed by her many Scouting friends in Newcastle District.

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74th Silverdale Scout Group hold a Founders Day Service

74 th Silverdale Scout Group held a Founders Day Service on Sunday 25th February 2007 as part of the Group's 2007 Celebrations. The Service was aimed at the youngsters and involved them taking an active part with the readings and Prayers.

At the end of the Service a Cake was cut by members of the Group and St Luke's Church.

The Photo Shows on the left Mr Harrison a former Scout and longstanding member of the Church with Mr Deakin (in Uniform) former GSL and longstanding member of the group standing behind his former Cub Mistress and member of the Church Choir Mrs Harvey who was married to another former GSL Cyril who held that post for approximately 40 years. Cutting the Cake is one of the current Beavers whose Grandfather was a long standing leader in the Group (George Fowles) and on the right is Churchwarden Mrs Smith who is a member of the Fellowship and married to a former Cub Leader with the Group.

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Scouts on Target with Success at the start of Centenary Year

Silverdale Scout Group is hoping to continue to have a successful year during the Scout's Centenary year following success by both the Cubs and Scouts in the District 5-a-side football competitions on Saturday 6th January.

The group started the day by wining the Cubs competition in style. The youngsters aged 8-10 ½ only lost one match, to Madeley Cubs, and scored a large number of goals during the competition including 7 in one match.

The afternoon saw the success continue with the Scout Section finishing in second place in their competition. Like the Cubs the 10-14 year olds also only lost one match during the competition, due to a last minute penalty scored by St Giles Scouts.

Group Scout Leader Vicky Mountford said that her heart was in her mouth during the final matches in both competitions and was so pleased for the youngsters who all had an enjoyable day. "It was a wonderful way to start the celebrations for the 100th Birthday of the Scout Association and I hope that the Group will continue to have a lot to celebrate in this special year for Scouts across the country". The Group thanked everyone who had taken part in the two competitions and made it an enjoyable day.

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Cannock Sea Scouts Achieve Royal Navy Recognition

On Tuesday 12th December 2006, 1st Blackfords Sea Scouts in Cannock played host to a very special event in the group and quite possibly the towns' history.

Following 2-3 years hard work and preparation the group was facing it's final Royal Navy inspection to become Royal Navy Recognised Sea Scouts, this is an honour granted to only 101 groups throughout the UK.

At the end of the evening the Inspecting officer (Lieutenant Commander David Griffiths) confirmed that the group had achieved the necessary standard and that he was pleased to confirm Royal Navy Recognition for the group. When you consider that there are in excess of 500 Sea Scout Groups in the country this puts Sea Scouts in Cannock in the top 20% a success we all should be very proud of.

This is the culmination of a huge amount of effort from the young people within the group, the leaders, executive committee, parents who support us and all of the various organisations that regularly support our work.

The event was supported by Admiral Sir Alan West GCB DSC who took the time to travel up from his home in Central London to support us, Colonel Michael Evans MBE (Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire), Councillors Keith & Diane Bennett. Representatives from the Royal Navy Association, Merchant Navy Association, Royal National Lifeboat Institute, were also there to support us. The County Commissioner, District Commissioner and District Chairman of Scouts were also supporting us at this event.

The Scouts now being Royal Navy recognised, now have the right to wear a badge of recognition and gain access to Naval bases, to camp on board ship and use Royal Navy training facilities.

Our next goal is to further expand our membership and the activities we offer, therefore any adults wishing to assist in the group or if you have a child aged 6 - 13 that would like to get involved in the group and it's many activities, please call us on 07790 284316 for more information.

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Wheaton Aston Sea Scouts Clean up at The V Concert

- and Every Sea Scout and Sea Cub got their own tent, sleeping bag, roll mat and fold up chair!

Wheaton Aston Sea Scouts in conjunction with the IronBridge Rotary Club helped to clean Weston Park after the V concert. Due to Health and Safety Parents, Junior Leaders and Adult Leaders went on site to do the work. The nature of the work was to rescue as many tents as possible to give to World Relief so that when any major catastrophe happens around the world that emergency shelters are provided, very quickly.


In total we were able to pack 500 tents of good quality for the World Relief project. Les Eaton Asst Sea Scout Leader stated "It was hard work, but the crew we had on board proved to be the pick up that we needed. Hopefully we have been able to help in some small way with any future emergency"

A real surprise and a huge reward was that we were also able to rescue enough tents so that every Sea Scout and Sea Cub of the future could have their own tent, sleeping bag, bed roll and fold up chair! This was an excellent day that was proved very rewarding for everyone. A big thank you goes to Wheaton Astons Oldest Scouter Don Thompson who arranged the clean up! Thanks Don!

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Wheaton Aston Sea Scouts win First Prize at the Village Carnival

Having only formed in October 2005, Wheaton Aston Sea Scouts are a very active group, and although only just finishing building the raft for the annual raft race we were hard at work building the float for the local Village Carnival. Every year the single sex organisations such as the Guides, Brownies and Rainbows tend to win with there superior “Cutting and Sticking” skills.

After many Hours of working along a nautical theme, the HMS Victory was designed, built and painted by the Sea Scouts, Leaders and Parents. I think most of the paint albeit green ended up on the Sea Scouts. One Mother was heard to say” I sent my daughter to Sea Scouts and Shrek returned” Still Great fun was had by all. T shirts were painted and last minute sail repairs were made to the ship and we looked forward to Saturday the 15th July for the Carnival to begin! The float and Sea Scouts looked great and the weather was excellent!



After the log haul around every road in the village we went to the Carnival Field where the Judges were awaiting the procession. After deliberation and the decision been based on costumes and floats being made rather than hired Wheaton Aston Sea Scouts took pride of place and won the best float award!

A big thanks to the Leaders, Sea Scout and Parents for all of their efforts and we can now look forward to our trip to Drayton Manor at the end of the month which was paid for by raising funds at the Carnival!

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Wheaton Aston Raft Race

Wheaton Aston Sea Scouts took part in the Stafford District Raft Race at GT Haywood at the weekend of July 1st, and what a race it turned out to be. We came 6th but given the faces of the Sea Scouts you would have thought we had won.

The more experienced Scout Troops in the district showed us how to build rafts that could move accross the water swiftly and with new plans and an Idea what to expect next year we would hope to better 6th, whilst keeping a smile on everyones faces.

The Weather was excellent and a GREAT BIG THANK YOU!! must go to SUE, ANT and the team who organised an excellent day! Great to See VAL WILSON DC supporting and encouraging everyone on the best district day we have attended, so far!!!!!!!!!

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County Show

On the first day of the show, John Brooks and his team arrived at the show ground at 6.30am and opened up the Mobile Display unit and by 8.00am when the show started, we were nearly ready - finally all was set up within half a hour.

The picture to the right was taken at about mid-day, and there was lots of volunteers for the Boulder Wall assisted by the Jamboree Scouts. There was much interest in the unit, and Janet Craig from County Office took home a good list of enquirers to whom a response letter would be going out the next day

To the left - Alastair Sutton busy taking enquiries on day 2.

A great success was the opinion of us all, and Miles Matile was well impressed too.

Happy Birthday to Jeremy Cotton on this day.

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Newcastle has a High

Four Scout Leaders in Newcastle are celebrating after having been awarded the Silver Acorn by the Chief Scout, Peter Duncan. The award, which is the second highest that can be given to a Leader, signifies that the holder has completed at least twenty years of “specially distinguished service” in the Scout Movement and is recognition of the outstanding contribution the quartet have made to Scouting in the area. It is highly unusual to have four awarded in the same District in one year. A brief summary of the achievements of each is given below.

Steve Broadhurst was a member of 14th Basford Scout Group from the age of 8 until 1994. He was a member of Cubs and Scouts, and held a number of leadership roles within the Group. He was Assistant District Commissioner for Scouts for over ten years, has served as Deputy District Commissioner since 2000, and he took up the role of District Commissioner for Newcastle in May. He has also chaired the organising committees for a number of events organised by the Division of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle, and has long standing involvements in both Castle Capers Gang Show and Screamline Gang Show in addition to the International Friendship Camp held every four years at Kibblestone Scout Camp in Stone.

Michael Deakin has been recognised for his outstanding work as Assistant District Commissioner for the Scout Fellowship, whose members are not able to take on a regular leadership role but give valuable support to Scouting on an occasional basis and enjoy an active social programme. He also carries out the demanding administrative role of Appointments Secretary to the District. Mike continues to have an involvement with Silverdale Scout Group which he joined as a Scout, and where he spent time as Group Scout Leader before joining the Scout Fellowship. He has given many years’ service to the Group and was a leading figure in the construction of the Scout Headquarters in 1964.

Alastair Sutton was a Cub Scout and Scout in Newcastle District. He moved to Stoke Central District following many years as Scout Leader at 107th Westlands, and returned to Newcastle in 1997 to work with adult Leaders in the Scout Section. Until recently he held the post of ADC Scouts. The award recognises his work with Scouts, especially in thearea of international Scouting.

Kevin Downward has been a lifelong member of the 50th Bradwell Scout Group, where he held the adult leadership roles of Cub Scout Leader and Group Scout Leader. He was District Commissioner of Potteries Central from 2000-2005, moving to Newcastle early last year when his previous District was merged. He has recently taken up the post of Deputy District Commissioner. The award recognises his work in Potteries Central, and his achievements in fundraising and as Safety Officer within Newcastle District.

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Wheaton Aston Sea Scouts

We are always very active and this half term has seen us doing the following; Basketball, Football, Bench Ball, Archery, Rifle Shooting, Fire Experience visit, RAF Cosford visit, Parade practice, Trampoline, Badmington, Stafford Park, Ten Pin Bowling and a Charity Football match for Leaders to raise funds. We also did a sponsored Car Wash at the Fallings Park Fire Station. After washing over 200 cars we made in excess of £760. We still have two more days to go in half term where we will be raft building and having an outdoor games day! That means we have had only one day off during half term, but its been great fun.

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