Wilton Scouts centenary celebrations

Our centenary year has come and gone. We enjoyed a fantastic party in May and a mass camp for members past and present in September 2009. Over the course of the year the Scouts went diving, climbing, canoeing, gliding, cycling, shooting, skating and much more. It was tremendous to think that Scouting had been a part of young people's lives in Wilton for 100 years and we are eagerly looking forward to the next hundred years!

As well as the parties and festivities we were also delighted that this celebration year was also notable for being the year we expanded to two Scout troop nights per week and also the year in which the first girl Scouts joined our ranks.

It would also be great to hear from any former Wilton Scouts, so spread the word and get in touch.

The birth of the Scouting movement was in 1907 when Robert Baden-Powell put his ideas of activities for boys to the test with an experimental camp on Brownsea Island. With the publication the following year in 1908 of his book Scouting for Boys there was an explosion of interest not just across the country but across the world. As the book enjoyed record sales, groups of boys everywhere were forming themselves into patrols and putting the ideas to the test themselves. By 1909 there were already some 107,000 Scouts and the foundations of the Scout Movement to establish some sort of organisational control over this new phenomenon.

It was in 1909 that Scouting first reached Taunton. The first troop formed here appears to have formed at the YMCA. Wilton was a close second, founded in August 1909. Later in the same year groups of boys from Trull, Pitminster, Staplegrove, Gloucester St, Queen's College, St Andrews, Bishops Lydeard, Bagborough and Bathpool also joined the action. When in 1914 the YMCA troop closed Wilton officially became the 1st Taunton (Wilton) Scout Troop, and has remained strong to this day.

Since that time the Scout Movement has expanded to include the Cub Scout section (1916), the Senior Scout section (1917) - which soon changed its name to the Rover Scouts, and later to Venture and now Explorer Scouts. Beavers, for the youngest members of the movement, joined the Scout movement in 1986.

If you want to find out more about the history of Scouting why not start at www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/history.

We think that 100 years of Scouting in Taunton is an excellent excuse for a party and warmly invite you to join us in celebration. Long may there be a Wilton Scout group in Taunton!