About

The 1st Little Stoke Scout Group was formed in 1952 to serve the area covered by the original Parish of Stoke Gifford, which now includes the southern end of Bradley Stoke. There is however, no restriction on young people joining the Group from any area provided we have room.

It is thought that a meeting was called on 6 February 1952 of boys interested in forming a Scout Troop. A significant day, as King George VI died and Princess Elizabeth became Queen. In the early days, meetings were held in a hut close to the Stoke Gifford Parish Council allotments at the back of Bush Avenue. On Saturday 30th January 1965, Mr J C Warry (Chairman of the Parish Council) performed the official opening of “Brownsea Lodge”, the new Headquarters of the Scout Group at Rossall Avenue in Little Stoke adjacent to the small car park for the playing field. At that time there were two Cub Packs and one Scout Troop. The building was in fact a builder’s construction hut acquired from the Berkeley Power Station site.

By the 1970s we had 3 Cub Packs and two Scout Troops and in 1987 we opened our first Beaver Colony. In the mid 1980s the condition of the Headquarters was deteriorating and serious fund raising started to replace the building. By a stroke of good luck, a firm operating on the new Bradley Stoke development offered to demolish the old building and build a new one. Work started during the summer of 1988 and we were able to move into the present building in January 1989. During the mid 1990s we had two Beaver Colonies, two Cub Packs and two Scout Troops with about 120 boys in the Group.

In the early 2000's, the group reduced to one Beaver Colony, one Cub Pack and one Scout Troop and our numbers dropped to about 60 boys. Since January 2006 the Group has been open to girls as well as boys and we now have girls in all three Sections.

Over the last few years our numbers have picked up and we now have 70 young people in the Group and 20 Leaders and Adult Helpers and we are poised to expand!