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11th Medway's History

Information & Photo Source:P.Christopher: 28/12/08

The hut was built in 1972 by the cub master, my father Mr Ernest Christopher, Mr Cyril Ryecroft, myself Peter Christopher, and others too many to mention.
My mother was the also involved in the cubs with my dad. I was working at British Gypsum at the time and was able to get the 50 sheets of plasterboard needed to help build the hut. It came in sections on a very large truck and was bolted together.

Mr Ryecroft was the main man so to speak, he took it on himself to organise the whole job of building, and as a special thank you the hall was named after him, he lived at Maidstone Road Chatham,

Mr Ryecroft then moved to the west country, and I believe now him and his wife may have departed us, they would be extremely old by now if they are still alive.

Fig 1
Fig 2

The photo (Fig 1) is of my father playing the guitar in the gang show. the boys in nappies (Fig 2) are some of the scouts at the time the tallest one is a boy called Robin Ryecroft the son of Mr Ryecroft, he died at the age of 21. They had a son David who must be still alive, I used to play tennis in the courts in the football grounds with him. We had some very good years in the hall, the old hall was in the allotments at the back of Clarence Road, top of Albany Road, where the 6th Medway cubs meetings were held.

The 6th Medway joined forces with another pack, I cannot remember the number, our kerchiefs were Black and Red, the 11th Medway was formed from these two packs, simply because of the size of us at the time, the powers that be said that we had to do this to save shutting down both packs. We did tie our kerchiefs slightly different, we twisted them, like hair platting, and tied the end of them with a reef knot, the idea of the knot was two fold, one to keep the platt in place and the other to remind us to do a good deed every day, a bit like a knot in your hanky, One other cub master was a women called Mrs Florie Tappenden who lived in The Chase she died some years back but she helped my mum and dad.

We used to go camping at Buckmore Park, which at the time was the main HQ of the scouts in the medway area. The district Commisioner was a man called Mr Whitehead whos job it was to maintain the upkeep of the packs and to make sure they were running to order. Going back to the hut building, it took about 2 months to build completely, and was opened by Mr Whitehead, and named.

Sadly my mother and father Mr Ernest Christopher and Mrs Gladys Christopher have now passed away, but I will always remember the goods times we had in the hall, from the building of it to the last ever visit by them. You might be able to get the information from the HQ in force now as regards to the forming of the two packs. Our main rivals were the 5th Medway and the 17th Medway always football, sports teams, and camping games. Happy days!! I would like to take this opportunity in thanking you for allowing me to walk down memory lane again, and I am sure my mum and dad would be thanking you as well, as they spent many lovely and happy years in scouting, it was their life and their love. Back in the days when things were very innnocent, where scouts would put on a nappy and sing in front of their mums and dads.

Thank you to P.Christopher for supplying this Information and Photos

This page is dedicated to Mrs Gladys Christopher and Mr Ernest Christopher who were cubmasters for over 20 years.

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