About Us

Our Scout Group

Our Scout Group is one of 9 Scout Groups within the Stowmarket District and has a youth membership of approximately 70 young people. The Group operates sections for each age group (Beavers, Cubs and Scouts) for children of 6 to 14 years of age. The group has a partnership agreement with Phoenix Explorer Scout Unit to meet at our HQ and provide Scouting for young people from 14 to 18 years.

The group has 20 voluntary Scout Leaders, a Group Scout Leader and an Assistant Group Scout Leader to manage the different sections. Leaders are assisted by a number of regular and occasional section assistants and helpers, including parents. All adults involved in scouting have a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check made before they are allowed to work with young people.

The group is an open group, which means that it is not sponsored by any authority, such as a church, and is managed by a committee made up of parents, leaders and people with special skills. The group owns and maintains it’s own headquarters (Scout Centre) and equipment.
All finances required to run the Scout Centre are raised through voluntary efforts of the committee and its supporters and the daytime letting of our headquarters.

The group seeks to achieve all of this by fostering a close partnership between leaders and parents. There are many different ways in which parents can contribute to the success of our Group and we would very much like to encourage your involvement.

Our History

1st Stowmarket Scout Troop came into existence in 1909, a year after Robert Baden-Powell created the Boy Scout Movement.

The first Scoutmasters were Mr W A Wright who was a baker and Mr Hugh Turner who owned a high class grocery store in the Market Place which was taken over by Woolworth’s and, more recently, by Peacocks.

Mr Wright’s bakery premises in Bridge Street became the Troop’s first meeting place and headquarters.

As the Troop flourished and grew – at one time there were seventy boys on role – there was a need for their own, larger space. In 1910 the Red Lion public house in Tavern Street closed and these premises – now a Dental Practice – were adapted for use as a new Scout HQ. As they were next door to the Salvation Army citadel – most recently Stannards -they were never short of music in the background. In fact, at this time the Scouts had their own Bugle and Drum band which performed at prestigious events in the town.

In 1932 the current site in Milton Road was purchased for £100 by local solicitor John Manning Prentice (whose family, it should be noted, were particularly associated with the Boys’ Brigade in Mid Suffolk) and held in trust for 1st Stowmarket Scout Group. The purchase was made from the Constitutional Club which continued to occupy the southern end of the building until it was demolished to make way for the Relief Road. The northern end, now occupied by the Scout Group, previously had been leased by the Con Club to a firm of vehicle repairers – Bull Motors.

In 1951, following the death of John Manning Prentice in 1943, the site was gifted to the Scout Group with fresh trustees appointed, including John Milner who was District Commissioner at the time and who later played a major role in the establishment of 3rd Stowmarket based at the Methodist Church.

After some major upgrading work the Milton Road premises were officially opened as the HQ of 1st Stowmarket Scout Group in 1955.

Apart from the addition of six Patrol Dens in the outer hall space these premises served as the home for 1st Stowmarket for the next fifty plus years.

A major building reconfiguration and refurbishment was carried out during 2012-2013 to provide twenty-first century facilities to accommodate the 1st and 3rd Stowmarket Scout Groups which had amalgamated in September 2009.