Since then, we have been on camp every year, to several different places. I have written a short summary for each camp below.
This was my first camp, and possibly the most memorable. 1st Weston were vastly outnumbered by 2nd Weston, but we got to know each other very quickly. We left very early on the Saturday morning, in order to get an early crossing from Lymington. We then drove across the Island to Bembridge, and parked the Coach in a narrow lane near Bembridge Aerodrome.
The Coach was on loan to us, as one of 2nd Weston's Officers (The chaplin) worked for the Coach Company. Therefore, it wasn't quite as funny as it should have been to watch the coach loose it's fight with the gatweay to the field!
During the week, there were many outings organised, including Alum Bay, and the Needles; Blackgang Chine; The Cowes Fireworks; an afternoon on the beach, Treasure hunts and a couple of trips to nearby Shanklin.
My most memorable point is taking a wrong turning on the Treasure hunt, and my tent ended up on the wrong side of the Hill! Fortunately, teh officers realised, and sent a car out to pick us up. This was no ordinary car, but a very well preserved 1969 Jaguar XJ6.
The worst part of the week was the journey back, as we had some problem with our ferry ticket, and ended up stuck on the Coach for about 3 hours waiting to be allowed onto a ferry. They finally let us on when they had a spare space, but it meant we were nearly 3 hours late getting home.
By the following year, Weston had acquired Katy, and decided to 'go it alone'. We arranged to go to stay at the Baptist Church in Downton, which had a field where the Company section could camp, and also the Church hall for the Junior Boys. Owing to the popularity of the Church, we had to go in the May half term.
Owing to the poor state of our own tents, we borrowed 2 off of the local Scout Group. Unfortunatel however, their tents were no better than ours, so when we got there we had 2 tents, 5 poles plus 4 Ridge Poles, and about enough pegs for a handkerchief! We managed to put the tents up, however, but instead of having the 9 Company section boys in 2 tents, we all had to squash into one.
We had a fun week, visiting Salisbury; Paultons adventure park, and Bournemouth Beach. We rounded the week off with the camp concert round the Bonfire.
For various reasons, for the next camp, we decided to renew our friendship with the 3rd Bridgwater Company, and invited them on camp with us. Once again, we travelled on out trusty Coach, Katy. The week started off badly, with torrential rain all day on the Saturday. This continued through the night, meaning that by 5am on the Sunday morning most people were up and about, simply to get out of the puddles, sorry I meant tents!
From our point of view, the Tents were very badly situated, at the bottom of a steeply sloping Hill, with a slight rise between them and the ditch!
My tent was actually at the lowest part of the field, so we got flooded out every night. Despite this, it was my favourite camp! We went on several trips, to Paultons (again); Swanage; Wareham and a ride on the Swanage Steam Railway.
By the Wednesday, the weather was so bad that the staff were considering taking us back to Weston, but fortunately for us, the Weather started to pick up in the afternoon, and on Thursday it was actually Sunny! We again finished the week with a Concert, which I think was probably one of the best ever.
Owing to the Torrential Rain, and Thunderstorms, the week led to a hilarious practical joke! we managed to convince one of the boys that we were in danger of being struck by lightning, and he spent over an hour sitting on top of the WOODEN goalposts, attaching a bent coathanger as a Lightning Conductor!
This was the first of many visits to The West-of-England regional training and Camping centre of Broadleas, at Haytor on Dartmoor. 3rd Bridgwater accompanied us again, and is was good to meet up with all the friends we had made the previous year. We had much better weather than the year before, and owing to the facilities on site, had a great time.
The site is in a hollow just below the famous Haytor Rocks on Dartmoor. It has a large amount of woodland, containing an Adventure course Unfortunately, due to Health & Safety, this has been temporarily removed. The site also has a outdoor Swimming pool.
With all of this on the site, in 1993, we didn't really feel the need for many trips. We did goto teh River Dart Country Park, and also Goodrington Beach, but the rest of the week we stayed put, with daily walks up the Tor, and a couple of organised walks around the local Quarry and a couple of other nearby Tors.
With the better weather, we were also able to provide a full inter tent sports competition, which included Football (on the worlds rockiest pitch), Cricket and Treasure Hunts.
We were also very lucky to be joined on camp by Neil Roberts, who was a former member, who had gone to train to be a minister, and took his last exams that summer. This meant that we had 5 of his family on camp - his Parents were cooking, and his brother was Adjutant (Or Agitator as we like to think of him!).
The only down side to the site is the Road to get to it. Like many roads on the edge of Dartmoor, it is a narrow, steep and winding lane, with few passing places. At one point, the hill is so steep that Alan, the driver, had to stop the Coach, and double de-clutch to get it into 'Crawler Gear', in order to keep going. This means that the Coach is travelling at about 4mph for nearly a mile!
This camp was laughingly inrtorduced as our first camp abroad - by our very own Welsh officer Mike Jones! It was certainly a long trek, as there was a lot of holdups on the Motorway. Anyway, we finally got there, in Glorious Sunshine, and managed to get teh Coach into the Field. The lane down was 'not suitable for motor vehicles', However, our intrepid driver decided to try and reverse down, and made it! He later discovered that if he'd turned around a little way up the road, he could drive in frontwards, and turn around on the field! Anyway, after teh long journey, everyone was glad to be able to run down the cliff path to the Beach. The walk down only took 10 minutes, but coming back up takes over half an hour, as it is a very steep sandy path!
It was another gloriously sunny week, so we were able to go down to the Beach nearly every day. We also went into Swansea on 2 occasions, and went to what was supposed to be a Wild-West Theme park. However, a load of Welshmen running round dressed as Cowboys, but talking with a strong Welsh accent isn't very convincing even to a 10 year old!
On the way back to the Campsite one evening, we met another Coach on a very narrow piece of road. Both Coaches had long lines of Traffic behind them, and when stuck between a 10foot wall, and thick Undergrowth tehre was very little room for manouvereing. After a good half hour, we had managed to squeeze past each other, and over 70 cars were counted in the queue going the other way - we were very impressed with ourselves!!
The weather held until the very last day, but just as we were starting to pack up the clouds opened. Fortunately, the Farmer allowed us to put Katy into his Barn, and so we managed to get most of the stuff packed up in the dry. We also had a small truck to help take equipment back, which was used to ferry stuff from the tents to the Barn, and it was then parked in the Marquee while it was packed up!
Back to Dartmoor! The camp followed much the same format as before, with trips to Goodrington and The River Dart Country Park. We also had a walk up the Tor every Evening.
This was the last camp for our well-loved then Captain, Bryan Jervis, known by everyone as 'BJ'. He was very sad to leave, but after nearly 50 years service in the Brigade, he felt it was time for the younger staff to take over.
The boys showed their appreciation to him and his wife, by buying them a Picture of Haytor, to remind him of his last camp. However, we don't seem to be able to get rid of him, and he keeps turning up on parade nights, and even gate-crashed last years camp!!
The weather was excellent again, and it was another very enjoyable camp - my last as a tent-commander, so I was very lucky to win the cup for best tent-inspection.
Owing to our Churches temporary lack of a minister, We had a pastoral assistant, by the name of David Jones, who was fresh from College. He was invited on camp, as the Chaplain, and made a great impression on the boys, with his enthusiasm, much like Neil Roberts had done 2 years earlier.
This was our first camp without Katy, and we certainly noticed the lack of freedom in being able to just get on the Coach and go - we had to book the coach in advance, and hope the weather would hold. However, one advantage was that the hired coaches were newer, and got up the hill a lot faster!
On this camp, we again followed similar activities as before, although we were starting to feel threatened by 3rd Bridgwater, as there numbers were increasing while ours were standing still! Despite this, however, the only inter-company rivalry is between the Officers!!
Having said that, we decided to make a couple of changes, and introduced a kite-making 'competition', whereby the boys were helped to make kites, and the ones that flew the best at the end of the week won a small prize. We also went to a Theme park near Dartmouth, instead of River Dart.
It was another year for departures, with Alan Loveridge (The former driver of Katy),a nd his wife leaving after 50 years service between them. The boys again clubbed together their spare pennies, and bought a small pottery Church, with a clock in the Tower.
We were fortunate to have David Jones join us again, shortly before he went to his new church in Plymouth. It was good to see him again, as he had left Weston at Easter.
We had an excellent camp this year, with a more even mix of Weston and Bridgwater, both with the Boys and Staff. However, we had more Staff on camp than Boys, which gave it a very top-heavy feeling. We kept many of the traditional elements that have made our camps so popular in the past, while introducing new activities, so as not to bore the more seasoned campers!
This year we had 1st Weston's Chaplain on camp as Chaplain, and he seemed to work well with both boys and staff alike. The 2 trips were as last year, to Woodlands adventure park, and Goodrington.
The Climax of the week was again the concert, although it was nearly overshadowed by the Great Boat Race - where staff & Boys had to create a self propelled boat to cross the pool, using set materials. The CO won, but was disqualified due to being the CO!
Owing to lack of support (we haven't really got enough boys without Bridgwater), we were unable to hold a proper canvas camp. However, we still had a thoroughly enjoyable week.
We stayed in a Youth Hostel Camping Barn near Chulmleigh in North Devon. There was a field behind the Barn, where the boys and male staff were able to sleep in tents, as well as play football. The first weekend the 4 oldest lads spent on an expedition for their Badgework / Queens Badge (DofE Silver).
On the Tuesday we all went to Exeter for the day, shopping in teh morning and swimming in the afternoon. The Wednesday afternoon was spent Mountain Biking on a local track, and on the Thursday we went to Saunton Sands and Barnstaple.
Although the boys wanted to return to Chulmleigh, company numbers (& finances) prevented a weeks camp with so few boys again.
We therefore ended up going to Huish Woods, near Taunton, the District Scout Camp. Most of the boy's enjoyed the weekend, although it would have been better if I hadn't had to take two of them to Hospital on Sunday morning with twisted ankles! We didn't leave site all weekend, and the weather held out, allowing plenty of activities.