Building the headquarters of the 8th Hornchurch Scout Group

This was a project taken on by a group of young men in their early 20’s who were at the start of their working careers and also Scout and Cub Leaders.
John Horrell, Venture Scout Leader. Mick Hasler, Scout Leader. Geoff Mouser, Cub Leader. Also contributing greatly were Venture Scouts, John Summers and John & Mark Richardson, and also Michael Gasper, Scout (12 yrs. old).
It took many years of talking about it, planning and raising money. At the time the Group was spread between St. Matthews church and St. Georges church with the main groups meeting in what was called the Old Boys School Room opposite St. Andrews church; also used was part of an old barn behind the original vicarage and a small hut on the land behind the Old Boys School Room. The vicarage was originally opposite St. Andrews church where there are now flats and the Old Boys School Room was next to it and indeed was an old school room from Victorian days.
The church leased the Group land adjacent to St. Matthews church; money was raised and a 50% grant was obtained from the Dept. of Education. This was done under the watchful eye of Dennis Thorne, the Group’s long-standing treasurer.
On a Saturday morning in 1966 a small number of volunteers turned up to help dig the foundations spade-full by spade-full, weekend after weekend. The construction continued and the building started to rise slowly out of the ground. The only contractors employed were a gang of bricklayers; all the other work was by volunteers. A scout parent, Mr. Evans, supplied the three enormous steel roof beams. One of the parents association, Dan Tracy, was an electrician and Scout Leader, Mick Hasler, was a plumber and heating engineer.
The walls were completed by the brickwork contractor, Mr. Campbell. The steel beams were raised using tripods made from pioneering poles and pulley blocks and ropes; and the roof constructed and weather-proofed. Doors and windows installed; at last the building was up and could be locked up. This was about half-way through the three years that it took to build.

Unfortunately the labour force remained much the same with the original few and only an occasional new face, and at times they became very despondent. Remember, every weekend winter and summer and some evenings month after month and this was of course in addition to running their respective sections, cubs, scouts and venture scouts. But they were determined to finish the project; and work continued with the installation of the plumbing, heating, electrical work and the wall, floor and ceiling boards were fitted.
Then eventually 3 years after started it was finished!

John Horrell
VSL 8th Hornchurch.