| The “North Cote” fields
were progressively developed for housing, but the On Mrs Castle’s
death, the “smallest field” was donated to the
Bristol Scout Association “for the use of the North
Cote Group”. Eventually in 1957, the Group purchased
the land for £630. The original wooden hut was then
extensively rebuilt and enlarged. This building was in turn
demolished and replaced by the present Headquarters, probably
one of the finest single Group Headquarters in the country,
which was opened on 10th May 1975 and named Northcote. The
original estimate for the building was £31,000 and grants
from the Education Authority and Youth Service totalled £25,000.
In fact, the tender for the building was finally £47,000
but notwithstanding this the Group courageously took the decision
to go ahead. The resulting debt has been progressively paid
off, mainly by money raised in the “Scout Shop”
in Westbury Village (a forerunner of today’s charity
shops) and other fund raising activities. The debt is now
paid - a tribute to the excellent work of all involved. The
current members of the Group are the beneficiaries.
The replacement cost of the land and buildings is now close
to £1 million.
When Northcote was built the Group consisted of a Large Cub
Pack and a large Scout Troop. With these new facilities the
Group has more than doubled in size and now offers Scouting
to the full age range and to both girls and boys.
In 1979 the Torochent Venture Unit was formed for the older
boys and now girls, this being the first section to offer
mixed scouting. Torochent is an anagram of Northcote.
In 1987 the second Cub pack was formed. The two Cub packs
were then named “Spence” after Alan Spence (former
Group Scout Leader and one of the main people behind building
Northcote) and “Walters” after Boss Walters (former
Scouter leader). It was decided not to distinguish which was
the old and which was the new Cub pack. Next
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