Wickenden Hall - 19th Purley Scouts HQ

Our HQ was built in the early 1960's by skilled members of the Group.  We are very lucky to be situated in the woods by Riddlesdown School (the White Path).  Several years ago we started an extensive refurbishment plan and have tracked our progress so far.....

Last year we finally reached our aim of getting all the flooring sanded and re-varnished.  This made an incredible difference to the hall.  We are slowly losing the 'scout hut smell'

During lockdown we had all new cupboards built in our small hall and Nell (our Beaver Leader) has been decorating them.  Our plan is to have a year per panel with hand-prints of all our young people so they can track their time at the 19th Purley Scout Group.

We are so lucky to have wonderful woodland surrounding our hut and our grounds team have been transforming our 1 acre  of land.  They have cut back brambles, built seating areas, built from reclaimed pallet an obstacle course.  Cut down dead/rotten trees and replanted over 500 new trees and shrubs.

Our large HQ was built in the 60's and sadly due to a leaking roof suffered severe damage to both ceilings in our 2 halls.  Thanks to Paul O'Brien, Director of O'Brien Contracts Ltd the hut has been transformed with fully insulated and boarded ceilings.

Also thanks to Karl Hancock, Director of KH Decorating who painted all the ceilings, walls and woodwork in the hut.

In 2018 we completely refurbished our toilets and converted our old kitchen into an accessible to all toilet and shower room.  This shower comes in very handy after a cold muddy camp at the hut!

In 2017 we converted one of our storage rooms into a fully equipped kitchen including a fridge/freezer, 2 ovens and 2 hobs and a host of well stocked cupboards.  This is the hub of our HQ and we would be lost without it.

This was one of the biggest projects we had undertaken and thanks to a grant from The National Lottery, the roof was sealed and fully insulated.  We also self funded to have cavity wall insulation installed to keep our hut nice and toasty without the use of heating.

We are very fortunate to be in the hearts of many of our past members and a very generous benefactor left us a legacy in their will and we used these funds to replace the old doors and windows.  These double glazed units replaced the old single glazed metal windows which we boarded up and had bars against them.

Our future plans include new garage, matting in the car park area, new heating, solar panels and much more...