About Us & Group History

It has always been very difficult to establish exactly when Stannington Scouts were started but is believed that Mrs Flora Comley and Mr Stuart Webster played a big part in the group being started possibly in the late 1930’s. Because of the last war the group declined until 1944 when 2 members of the Stannington Church choir decided to start the group up again and it was affiliated on July 22nd 1944.

Meetings at first were held in the Church hall until a decision was made to break away from the Church and become an open group. This meant there was nowhere to hold meetings, and for over a year every Tuesday evening meetings were held in a 10 by 6 feet garden shed.

Finally a very cold brick and concrete building was found which originally had been the small arms store on the old Wood Lane gun site. In 1951 Sir Arthur Matthews performed the opening of this new hq. In 1959 Redmiles the builders contacted the group to explain that they had purchased the land and were proposing to build houses on the site. This was to become the Marchwood estate.

Following a meeting with the Stannington Church Council, agreement was reached to use the Church School room for one night a week. Numbers greatly improved and the group became much more active taking part in the Sheffield gang shows held in 1965 & 1967. However, the Church began to have problems accommodating the group as they needed the hall for their own activities.

Mrs Sylvia Linley, a leader within the group, while pushing her young son around in a pram came across the land where the current building is. Wortley District Council were approached about the land and after planning formalities, permission was granted to erect a second hand wooden hut that had been obtained from Davy United who had used it as their works canteen.

As the years rolled by it became apparent the wooden hut was rotting away and was no longer fit for purpose. After many years of hardship and fund raising the current purpose built building was built in 2003, and from here the group has gone from strength to strength and currently has over 130 youth members ably supported by over 20 adult leaders and undertake a range of activities that allow the young people to develop in a safe environment.

Click here for video tour of our scout hut.

Young Leaders

We have a group of amazing young leaders that help out across all sections, click to hear a Cubs volunteer talk about the benefits of Scouting.