District Camp May 2024
For the first time in over a decade, Groups from across Romsey District joined up to camp together for a weekend. From Friday 23rd to Monday 26th May 2025, we took over the Ferny Crofts Activity Centre in the New Forest for a jam-packed weekend full of activities, excitement and fun.
It had been in the planning for more than three years, with District having paid the deposit in November 2022. Unlike previous District camps* where we had camped on a greenfield site and so needed to take everything with us (water, loos, activities…), Ferny Crofts were able to offer many on-site activities as well as the ‘infrastructure’ for many of the activities.
The weekend started with an Opening Ceremony on the Friday evening, with the assembled Cubs, Scouts and Explorers making the most of our ‘Carnival of the Animals’ theme. During the ceremony, we were pleased to be able to celebrate Scout Samuel Leming, who had won the competition (in 2024) to design our camp logo. Samuel was presented with a voucher and a framed image of his design and the final logo. (He was also able to take away the giant banner we had made at the end of the event; he was hoping to find room to display it in his bedroom! Lucky his Mum is a Scout leader and understands these things…)
Activities underway
Saturday morning started with an early ‘wake-up’ activity before breakfast, to get everyone up. (In fact, I am told that Saturday morning actually started about 5am, because it’s light then in May and there was a football match taking place by 5.30. So let’s say the formal activities started with the wake-up session!) Our Beavers arrived for 9.30am to spend one night camping with us and taking part in activities on both Saturday and Sunday. Over the weekend, the young people spent one session in each of four activity zones. They covered a range of activities from the exciting to the creative and from the challenging to the traditional. Where there was Tomahawk throwing for older children, soft Tomahawks were used for the Beavers and Squirrels. Backwoods cooking was a surprise hit – although not many of the participants had the patience to wait for their twist to cook over the fire before they wanted to eat it! Arts and crafts, table tennis, bouldering, shooting, bouncy assault course, archery, high ropes and much more were enjoyed by all. (District Vice President David Sutton claimed the prize on the Sunday for being the oldest person down the zip wire!)
You can’t camp without a campfire…
Saturday evening saw a very loud campfire; in fact, two campfires, as the Ferny Crofts campfire circle is not large enough to accommodate all who were camping! Beavers and Cubs were delighted by some songs that they knew and some they didn’t, and the tale of the Three Little Pigs was brilliantly brought to life by some Explorer Scouts in costume. It was Ruben the wolf’s birthday so a very loud chorus of Happy Birthday showed their appreciation. There was a (well-earned) intermission before campfire leaders Martyn Blake and James Child ran a second session for the Scouts and Explorers. Romsey Town Councillor, Colin Burgess, who was visiting for the evening, joined in both campfires with gusto and said he had thoroughly enjoyed himself. “It’s been a long time since I went home smelling of woodsmoke!” he said.
Sunday saw an early wake-up activity before it was time for Squirrels to join us as day-visitors. They got to take part in the majority of the activities, too, even the crate stack! After another full day of activities, Martyn and James just about had enough voice left to run a Campfire for them before they left on Sunday evening with the Beavers. The Cubs, Scouts and Explorers who were camping for another night had a disco and party games to enjoy on Sunday evening. (It turns out that doing the Hokey Cokey was the activity that required the most first aid of the weekend!)
Monday was pack-up day and those still on site took part in a Closing Ceremony. Each participant was given a postcard and asked to write down what they enjoyed most about the weekend and something they would like to challenge themselves to do over the next few months. The postcards were collected in and will be returned to them in the autumn as a nice reminder of camp and to see if they met their own challenges!
Camp by numbers
Over the weekend, we had over 400 young people camping, along with about 150 adults, as well as many who came out to help for the day. We were able to draw on Instructors from across the District and the County to help run activities for us, as well as our two lovely First Aiders, Claire and Carolyn, from the Hampshire Scout Team. We distributed 500 camp badges and the same number of neckerchiefs – and I have only 12 pieces of lost property left over still to find good homes for!
So many people to thank
It would be impossible to thank everyone who gave up their time and effort to make this happen but I’m going to try:
John Heagren and Andy Pudney for stepping up to join the Camp ‘leadership team’ and being prepared to put their names on the paperwork!
Bex and Fudge Fouch, and Tris Harris for giving up yet another weekend to help it all run smoothly;
Joe Biondini, ‘waker-upper’ in chief, ceremony MC and photographer extraordinaire
Everyone who led an activity, especially Jo Leming for sourcing the arts and crafts base;
James and Martyn for another brilliant (and very loud) campfire;
And to all our adult volunteers who didn’t just give up their weekend but also helped organise the bookings and logistics for their young people well in advance;
And to the enthusiastic team of staff and instructors from Ferny Crofts who helped us set up the event and then ensured some of the more challenging activities went safely.
Come back soon to watch the Romboree video to see if you can spot anyone you know!
Past Romsey District camps
*Previous whole District Camps (in recent memory) have been:
2013 – The Elements Camp at Broadlands
2008 – Romsey District Centenary Camp at Broadlands
2000 – Millenium Camp, with our Guiding friends, in Whiteparish