Girlguiding Kidlington District
Girlguiding Kidlington
About us and history
The First Kidlington Guide Company grew out of a group of girls from a West Ham Girls School evacuated to Thornbury House in 1939, at the onset of the Second World War. The first Captain was a Miss Bubbers and her Lieutenant, Rose Deeley, a Kidlington Teacher.
1st Kidlington Brownies opened shortly afterwards, with the Ranger Unit coming into existence in the early forties.
Meetings were originally held in the old school, in School Road, but by the late fifties, the First Kidlington Guide Company met in the Silver Band Hut in the High Street, as did 1st and 2nd Kidlington Brownies, whilst the 3rd Kidlington Brownie Pack met in Edward Feild School Hall. When 2nd Kidlington Guides came along in the early sixties they looked around for a venue and eventually met in the newly built North Kidlington Primary School.
However none of the venues worked well, storage (especially of camp equipment) was always a problem, Caretakers were touchy and there was little cohesion between Units.
When the possibilty arose in the late sixties of buying an area of land in Green Lane from Ben Smith, a local landowner, at a cost of £250.00, the Guides leapt at it, closed the deal and started fund raising. The Green Road Guide Centre was finally opened in September 1973, at a cost of £4,000.
And, as has been said, we've been using it ever since, with approximately 250 girls, young women and Leaders meeting there weekly.
At the present moment it is used by 2 Rainbow Units (ages 5-7 years), 4 Brownies Packs (ages 7-10 years), 4 Guide Units (ages10-14 years), a Ranger Unit (14-25 years) and a Trefoil Guild Group who meet monthly on Thursday afternoons(over 18 years).
