The Elvington Scout Group was formed circa 1982 by Keith Gosling, Jim Sanderson and Ken Rawlinson who started up with just a cub pack, having children of a cub age.

About 18 months later in 1984 Ian King, Jackie Smith and John Wharton started the scout troop due to them having children who were now old enough to become scouts and wanted to continue in scouting.  They held their first week long summer camp at Wailsby in 1985.

DPP_0119The Cub and Scout meetings were initially held at the Elvington School but due to clash with the then caretaker (over dried peas) they moved into a shed on the Elvington airfield.  This turned out to be very unsecure and drafty.  The generator they were using for lighting and heating was stolen so the troop decided to then move to a converted barn on Church Lane in the village.  This was renovated so that equipment could now be stored and kept safely, however it was found to be too inconvenient trying to manoeuvre the bus down this narrow lane for camps etc. Plans had been put in place to build a new premise next to the sports field (near the doctors).  Mr Simpson had heard about the scouts looking for new premises and in 1990 the group bought the current HQ and the land off him for £3000.  The group spent £20, 000 doing up the old WW2 airfield generator buildings including two new roofs (the first new roof leaking as much as the roof the HQ had when first bought.  A new Kitchen was later donated by Howdens.

Wheldrake were initially a separate group consisting of cubs and scouts.  Being Evington’s closest neighbour competitions and tournaments were regularly arranged between the two groups and strong lasting friendships made.  Due to lack of leaders the Wheldrake group had to fold and this is when they joined with the Elvington group…

The newly acquired scout hut in the late 1980’s early 90’s:

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