INTRODUCTION  Page last updated 09/02/2021 

Welcome to our website containing the history of the Eynsham Scout Group which is maintained by F.O.E.S. - The Friends of Eynsham Scouts. Eynsham is a small village five miles to the west of Oxford, England, whose scout group was started during the first world war. Through documents, photos, films, video and memories, our aim was to build up an archive of Eynsham's scouting past in time for its official centenary celebrations in 2018. We're pleased to say that the majority of the archive is now available here, but there are still boxes of stuff that need to be sorted and digitised which will take many years and is an ongoing project. Unfortunately, due to "Flash Player" not being available anymore, our picture slide shows no longer work. We are currently working on adding gallery pages to make them visible again by clicking on the photos on each decade main page. Sorry for any inconvenience while the work is done.

This website is a working document and will grow as more current and former members of the group donate material to add to the site, so check back regularly to see what's new. If you or a relative were part of the group, either as a child, leader or committee member, we would love to hear from you. Perhaps you, or someone you know, has some memorabilia stored away, or stories that you would like to add? If so, please contact Mark and we will arrange to copy your items or record your memories and put them on this site. If you have the technology, please send them to us by email with attachments and photos of at least 1Mb size so we can edit the photos and still maintain reasonable quality when they are compressed to web format.

We hope you will find it easy to navigate around the site using the links above. Details of the current Eynsham Scout Group, Friends of Eynsham Scouts and the annual Eynsham Scouting Reunion can be found by clicking the links above. We have divided the archive into decades with general or undated information to begin and then details of each year in it where known. Every effort has been made to check the accuracy of the information where possible, but memories fade with time and it's inevitable that some inaccuracies may occur. If you spot any, please let us know so we can collaborate it and update our records.

WHAT'S NEW

Our website is being updated as often as possible with some material stored in the archives to be sorted and digitised. So check back regularly and see what's new. There are boxes of archives still to sort through and more coming in all the time, so if you can add to it by email, disc, memory stick or card, we'd really appreciate your assistance. But don't let that put you off, we'd love to borrow your Eynsham Scouting memorabilia, so get in touch if you can add to the archive. If you are able to help transcribe old documents or copy documents and pictures, we'd love to have your assistance to increase the information on this site. We are hoping to add details and pictures for the later 2000 years ASAP, but there's a lot to do so please bear with us.

14th January 2021

Whist we are back in 'Lockdown' again, we are unable to hold our 2021 reunion in March as usual. Responses to our email postponing the event has shown that people still want a reunion of some kind later in the year and the committee will keep the situation under review in the hope we may be able to organise an outdoor gathering some time either side of the school summer holidays.

16th March 2020

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and Government restrictions on holding events, our 2020 reunion has had to be cancelled. The committee will continue to monitor the situation and if it become possible and see if we can hold an event later in the year, or leave it until 2021.

1st January 2019

Well we made it! 100 years of Scouting in Eynsham and a year of celebrations. These included at special uniform badge for all the group, the annual reunion where all present were also given the badge, a group camp at Youlbury, a float and history display at Eynsham Carnival, and many activities celebrating our history on unit nights.

THANK YOU'S

Thanks go to all those who have supported the archive and donated items for us to share on this website including....

Derek Parker, ex scout, band member and organiser of the Bosses Night Reunion for 50s years for his photos, documents, newspaper cuttings and memories.

Richard Smith for the group history project he researched in the 1980s by talking to many of the original members of the group (see 1986 for contributors).

Sue Greenwood, Group Scout Leader and Ex-Beaver Leader for her Beaver Scrapbooks from 1992-9 and Carnival videos, and links with the current Scout Group.

Bill Harris, one of the early members of the group, whose memories live on in his photo albums and slides that have been donated to us.

Roy Parsloe for his memories of his time in Eynsham Scouts and his photos of the 1947 Jamboree he went to in France.

Vic and Marline Turner, for their photographs, memorabilia and slides of Cub Camps in 1988.

Trevor Winstone, ex Scout, Venture and Explorer Leader for his memories and documents of Eynsham Venture Scouts.

Steve Batts for his early Eynsham Scout Fellowship and FOES newsletters.

Andy Wotherspoon for his memories documents, Scout Badge Manuals and Scout Record Cards from when he was Troop Leader in the 1980s.

Jim Hanks for his pictures of the 2007 Centenary camp near Kirtlington.

Marisa Keeley for loaning us her Falcon Cub Pack Scrap Book and Photo Album from 2001-2008.

Penny Berry for transcribing Derek Parkers hand written reports of Boss's Nights.

Former Scout Harry Russell for the photos he took of Boss's Night in the 70s.

Geoff Watson for his pictures of Eynsham Carnival from 1973-1978.

Anthony Batts for his photos of the Eynsham Ex-Venture Scouts walks along the South Coast in 2011 & 12.

David 'Chip' Carpenter, former Eynsham Cub Leader for finding photos and information on Eynsham Scouts in the Oxfordshire Scouting Museum at Youlbury.

The Trustees of The Scout Association for providing documents and pictures and kindly giving permission for them to be reproduced on this website.

Mark Watson, ex cub, scout, leader & reunion committee member for his films, videos, photos, Scout Association research & for maintaining this website.

MESSAGES

We welcome your feedback on the site, possible improvements, additional information and corrections for any errors you may have spotted. We can also post messages if you want to get in touch with other ex-members of the Eynsham Scout Group to perhaps share memories, check details and get together some more information for the website.

James Beresford emailed, can you help? - At the age of thirteen, I joined The 1st Eynsham Scout Troop in December, 1955, staying with them until July, 1957. I am currently writing my boyhood autobiography, and would like information on the troop for that period, including, if possible, the names of the Scouts, Rovers and Scout leader. I am more interested in the names of Rovers for personal reasons, but any information you can give would be most welcome.
 

I'm loving the new website....happy days. Thanks for setting this up, it's great to look back and remember, I have so many happy memories of this time. Huggy.

What a fantastic piece of work - congratulations. Best wishes, Josie and George Smith.

Here is a selection of pictures that we have no dates for. Can you tell us when they were, what's going on and who is in the pictures? Even if you don't know yourself but know someone who may, please get in touch. We can take a laptop round to non computer users to show them if they can help fill in any gaps. It's your archive and your help will be appreciated to get it as accurate as possible.