New Land and Building

The Future of Local Scouting

The 1st Sutton Scout Hut Squad have worked hard for a number of years to provide a secure future for our ever-growing group of young people. Ultimately, we aim to provide a purpose built safe and welcoming headquarters for both the Scouting family in the village, District and the wider community who are looking for facilities in our beautiful rural idyll.

Having our own space will allow us to hold more outreach opportunities within the village to get villagers involved in healthy outdoor activities.

Activity & Recreation Field

We’re well on our way to securing our recreational and activity field for Scouting and Community use.

In anticipation of the acquisition our leaders have undertaken new training to be able to offer Tomahawk throwing as an exciting new activity.

Additional funding could help us to purchase equipment to make the most of our new area, we will need storage, canoes, more archery & fitness equipment, pop up marquees, the list is endless, and since we've demolished our existing hut in preparation for building a new one in the years to come, we're forging on with building regulations to keep our planning application live.

Community Recreation Facility

Having secured planning permission and receiving support from members of the scouting and the local community for the building we are now forging on to purchase adjacent land to be able to offer outdoor recreation facilities which will appeal to all young people but will increasingly appeal to our teenage members and thus encourage longer term commitment to Scouting, giving us better opportunity to support young people in developing skills for life.

Ideal Location for Activities

Whether you're love Archery, Shooting, Cooking without utensils, kayaking, Whittling sticks, playing outdoor games or just camping, we have the ideal place.

Having our extra recreational ground in a secluded rural area will make it far easier and safer to offer archery opportunities to both our youth and the village. Activities which appeal to older children in a secluded location encourage young people to stay longer in the Scouting movement, but also attracts families to take part in new physical activities, we love to run family sessions where the competition really heats up!

Pioneering

Pioneering is a great opportunity for the age groups to work together - top team work!

Our leadership system encourages shared learning opportunities, across sections (we support children from 4 to young adults of 18). These opportunities are open to volunteers subject to our safeguarding guidelines and often volunteers start with a short-term project to meet the likes of DofE but end up committed to serving, because it’s so rewarding. Training and mentoring opportunities are offered to the local community. A great many people have learned new transferable skills, under the supervision of leaders and other mentors. Not only does Scouting help young people it also offers opportunities to engage with adults seeking to acquire new skills, build confidence and improve job seeking opportunities as they have so many new credentials.

Scout & Community Hall

We plan a fully purpose built eco-friendly replacement hut, fit for today’s purpose to offer indoor facilities for developing young peoples skills for life and community group use.

Fundraising

Our new purpose built hut was originally costed at around £200,000. Thanks to community support for our fundraising projects we've raised over £75,000 already. That's a lot of burgers, cake, raffles, singing, fish and chips and some very generous donations.

Where Are We

The Hall and Recreation Field is located just 2 miles outside of the village in Sutton Gault, and sits neatly in the countryside with easy access to the river, and our very own recreational ground.

Splashing About on the River

Our location close to the river, along with the support of specially trained leaders offers us the chance to partake in water activities without leaving the village making participation for all so much easier due to lack of onward travel. In an area surrounded by water teaching our young people water safety is a very important skill for life and it’s great to award water activity badges.

Extra funding would enable us to replace water activity equipment to ensure safe operation in the water. Our kayaks and canoes require replacement along with buoyancy aids. With more time on the river maybe we’d be able to defend our winners raft race title In Ely’s Aquafest! Maybe this attempt at raft building wasn’t our best!

Benefits to Local Scouting

Having a purpose built activity field, new equipment and a purpose build hall will hugely benefit our young people. Here's what our leaders say:

Scout Leader: "Scouts have an expectation of camping, and we want to be able to offer this opportunity without the children and their families having to leave the County. This land purchase would enable us to offer local nights away benefitting not only our group but also the wider district of scouting in Ely. Additionally, having lost local facilities we can open up the facilities to school groups for DofE practice and forest schooling."

Quarter Master Ben: "is excited to be able to bring kit out of storage to be utilised by the group and the wider community such as our archery - which not only is hugely popular with our young people but helps to engage with families on open days."

Benefits to the Local Community

We are a community-minded Scout Group that looks to work with and for our local village. Active and caring young people make great citizens!

This project will help all generations in our village to stay active in different ways.

Scouting in Sutton is a very well supported and active part of the Community, and takes its place in the community respectfully, helping commemorate Armistice with not only the March, flag bearing and service, but also remembering the fallen in the village with commemorative artworks, working with the Royal British Legion.

Community groups such as the Healthy Heartbeat group, Ely Archery Club, the local primary school and school DofE clubs are already looking forward to using our resources.

Our work with the Patient Participation Group in the village has been a prime example of this, and we’re grateful of the groups support teaching heart health to our young people. Our facility would offer an ideal place to walk to, a tranquil place to stop and observe wildlife and a range of activities for all. We love to hike from our location, deep in the countryside and we don’t have to go far to absorb a lot of the natural world. We’d like the local community to enjoy this too. With ever more need for better mental health for all, what better than this rural location to practice mindfulness, relaxing away from the hubbub of the village centre.

If you'd like to read more about our work within the local community, please click HERE

We Need Your Help

To complete the milestones in our project, we need your help. We'd love to hear from you if you can help us with our goals to provide Scouting and the Local Community with fantastic recreational and hall facilities

To see more of our fundraising initiatives, please visit our

Please complete this form to get in touch and let us know how we could work together.

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1st Sutton Scout Group