Community News From Around Our Area

100-ish Years of Girlguiding in Lapworth!

Our friends at the Lapworth Local History Group came across this photograph of the Lapworth Guides, circa 1922, so we know that there have been girls enjoying the friendship, camaraderie, community service and outdoor pursuits that Girlguiding provides for over a century in our village (on and off).

The Movement was created when a group of girls sneaked into Lord Robert Baden Powell's Scouting Rally at Crystal Palace in 1909 and asked him to set up something similar for the girls. Getting his sister, Agnes, to spearhead it, the Girl Guides were officially created the following year, spreading quickly across the country and eventually the world! There are currently around 60 Brownies, Guides and Rangers in Lapworth but over 10 million girls involved worldwide.

We don't know exactly when the first Guide unit opened in Lapworth so it has been difficult to pinpoint our centenary, plus there have been several years of hiatus for varying reasons (often lack of leaders) and the current unit only opened in 2009. But we've decided to celebrate it this year, even though it's probably a bit more than 100 years now!

We had a competition to design a special centenary badge, which was won by one of our Rangers, and we have had these made to sew onto our camp blankets.

We know that there are many people locally who have been involved over the years and we would like to invite them to join us for a Centenary Celebration on the evening of Tuesday 4th July. Please spread the message far and wide to anyone you know who has been a Brownie, Guide, Leader, Unit Helper or more recently, a Ranger in Lapworth, whatever decade that might have been in! Please visit www.tinyurl.com/LapworthGuides to register your interest so we have an idea of numbers.

Lapworth Brownies, Guides and Rangers still enjoy lots of outdoor activities and we had a Centenary Spring Glamp at the end of April. The girls enjoyed zip wiring, caving, grass sledding, archery, go karts and a tree trek, as well as a campfire and a good old sing song. We go hiking, litter picking and kayaking, as well as making crafts, playing games, helping at the local National Trust properties, and having the occasional pamper session. Guides and Rangers are also looking forward this summer to "Wellies and Wristbands", a music festival style camp in the New Forest, with hundreds of our Guiding sisters from across the country.

We've had over 100 years of fun - and we're still loving it!