Bromsgrove District Millennium Camp

It was a millennium aim of the UK Scout Association to have all members on camp, under canvas during the weekend of 26-29/5/00. The weekend achieved 340,000 members under canvas, a record in the history of the Scouting. The Bromsgrove District Millennium Camp was held at Jefferies farm in Upper Bently near Hanbury on the edge of Bromsgrove. Around 300 Cub Scouts, Scouts, Venture Scouts and Leaders from across Bromsgrove District attended the camp.

Thursday 25/5/00

Many group sent advance parties to the site in pitch the canvas ahead of the Cubs and Scouts arriving on the Friday, a number of leaders also camped over on the Thursday night as security for the equipment on site.

Friday 26/5/00

More kit was transported to the site, more canvas was pitched including the marquees. The firewood for the campfire was delivered and the toilets arrived! As the day progressed more leaders and helpers arrived on site and from around 5.00 p.m. a few Cubs and Scouts were helping to. By 8.00 p.m. everyone had arrived and all the tents were pitched. It was raining! Due to the weather the Cub's hike was postponed with cubs doing activities on site instead. The Scout's 'hike, wide-game, hike' went ahead as planned, this involved a hike to Hanbury woods, a wide game involving CDs hanging from trees, a small amount of code tracking and then a prize in the form of chocolate! The Scouts then hiked back arriving back around midnight, having had soup and biscuits they went to bed, the Cubs were already in their tents by now but not doing much sleeping!

Saturday 27/5/00

The weather forecast said "heavy showers". The weather was true to the forecast, so we went ahead with the dry programme for the day - the majority of the bases were in the marquees anyway and these bases simply became busier when a shower passed over! The bases were many and varied including, Rocket making and firing, The Virgin Trains game, balloon modeling, making letter racks, Virgin Cola identification, plaster of Paris and many more. During the morning we were proud to receive a visit from Vic Morgan, County Commissioner of Herefordshire & Worcestershire Scouts. At lunch the decision was taken to finish the bases for the day and for the Cubs to go on their hike (postponed from Friday). The Scouts remained on site and organised their own activities such as football, volleyball, rounders and one group constructed a dam across the stream (see photos). The cubs arrived back from their hike and shortly after we all sat down to dinner. The evenings activities consisted of a 'campfire' (due to the unpredictable weather, this became 'campfire songs in the marquee'), a barbeque and a brilliant fireworks display. The evening was open to invited visitors, these included the chairman of Bromsgrove District Council and the mayor and mayoress of Droitwich, many friends of Scouting and members of Scout Fellowship, parents, families and members of Group and District executive committees. The camp was quiet again by around midnight and the rain started once again!

Sunday 28/5/00

One of the first comments I heard on Sunday morning from another leader was "who's built a swimming pool in front of my tent!". The rain had made the most of the night and the field was even worse than Saturday. A camp decision was made to abandon the activities planned for the morning and concentrate on packing up early as we knew it wasn't going to take longer than planned. After breakfast we began striking camp. The camping field was closed to vehicles with the exception of the tractor, to whom we are very grateful, since patrol tents get heavier the further you have to carry them! The ability to load up the bucket on the back of the tractor with tentage and kit and then simply unload into vehicles at the other end was very useful. By round 1.30 most groups had left the site, some had arranged for parents to collect members from the site, others transported their members back to their headquarters for collection after lunch. Back at groups own headquarters the task of washing and sorting kit, drying tents and collecting lost property began. This task, in particular the lost property, will take weeks to complete!

Monday 29/5/00

All I can say about Monday is I felt sorry for the thousands of campers across the country who had opted for 3 or 4 day camps and were still camping. For us, it meant more cleaning of tents and equipment (including jet washing).

Tuesday 30/5/00

The last of the tents (including the marquees) were removed from the site, enabling the field to start recovering from our muddy camp!

The camp may sound from this account a total disaster and I have heard similar stories from all over the country. However in every case, ourselves included, the story was of a fun and enjoyable camp, albeit in the mud. The mud was in many cases used by the Cubs and Scouts to increase their enjoyment of the camp. I have so far heard two reports from the Cubs and Scouts I took:

"It was brilliant, the best bit was the fireworks" - 9 year old Cub Scout, 1st camp with cubs.

"The best camp I have ever been on" - 11 year old Scout (who has attended many Cub camps previously).

Image Gallery - Millennium Camp and other activities

Millennium Camp Thanks to:

The District Team and Millennium Camp Committee,

All Group Scout Leaders for coordinating their group for the camp

All Leaders and Helpers for everything you did before, during and after the camp

All Parents for arranging transport and for washing all the kit afterwards

All Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Venture Scouts who attended.

for supplying promotional items for use as prizes.

for providing us with drinking water to the field.

for supplying and servicing the toilets

For more information on the Millennium camps which took place across the country please visit

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Page Maintained by Peter Dodman Last Updated 22/6/2000