Yorkswood York’s Wood camp site Castle Bromwich

[Christina]

I now live on part of Yorkswood, but there is still a large part left. I was in the 1st Kingshurst Guides and we use to go to the yearly scout get togethers, especially when we all sat around the dip in the woods, campfire in the middle and sang songs.

Lots of the trees have been left surrounding the houses, and the walk way that led to the camp sites is still there, with the gargoyles from the top Lewis's. My garden still displays it's bluebells and garlic flower every year, coming up from when it was all woodland.

It was orignally Kingshurst Woods, going back many many years.

Project Kingfisher, now Kingfisher Country Park may have more information.

Happy days.

 

[Kevkonk]

Hi,
I recall going to YorksWood as a cub by bus, around mid 60's, and had my picture taken with another cub after doing a 'drink drink drink' bar routine with bar towels around our arms, it appeared in the Sunday Mercury the next day, (this was around the Margaret Reynolds crime as I recall the photographer saying we would be in the paper if the poor girl was not found).

I would love to trace this picture......

 

[Bernard67Arnold]

I can well remember visiting the Scout Shop in Dale End during the war, 1942/44, I left school in 1944
and was directed by the M,O. Labour to work at the Rover factory in Kings Road, after which I lost interest,
Bernard

 

[Kevkonk]

View attachment 57202


I managed to trace this picture from The Sunday Mercury, from September 1965 at Yorkswood. 29th St Josephs Scouts, it was a garden party thingy I think.

I remember going there on a bus with a load of other Cubs and Scouts, and remember we had to sing a drinking song, we had bar towels and funny hats, a guy came and put some colouring on our faces shortly before the picture was taken
we were supposed to be old time waiters with beards and moustaches .
I recall that the picture I remembered was different from this one, so I guess it may have been a different edition of the paper.

I am on the far right of the picture.

 

[Davenport]

Hi, I have come across this photo ( sorry its so small ) of a scout party at Yorks Woods c1957 ?

My Dad used to help the groundsman/caretaker, think his name was possibly Albert or Jack. I just about remember his house with crab apple and cherry trees in the garden.

Dad used to help cutting the grass, i remember the shed smelling of petrol, grass cuttings and tizer pop !

 

[rover]

The 179th 1st Yorks Wood Scout Group was the resident group on Yorks Wood Camp site and shared tenure with the Yorks Wood Rover Scouts. The group relocated from their temporary HQ in nearby Hillstone road junior school in the late 50's to the Yorks Wood camp site where they remained until the early 70's until the site was sold, (their colours of neckerchief a Light Green with Gold edge). The group firstly used the McKenzie building as their HQ until relocating to the then vacant First Class Scout Hut which was situated in the Rover field along with the Rover Scout Hut and the Rover Guest House.
I believe they were the last Troop in the country to wear the old Baden Powell style hat (The Lemon Squeezer) resisting the change to the Beret until the Troop disbanded. A well deserved mention here is of the popular and well respected District Commissioner at that time his name was Reg Bleakman.
The 179th 1st Yorks Wood Scout Group was disbanded when the site was sold and its proud group name is now preserved in history on this site.
Some of the scout group members transfered to the neighbouring 184th Kingshurst Scout Group (their colours of neckerchief maroon with gold edge) where its HQ was situated on the kingshurst side of the scout camp but just outside of the camp site boundary and others joined the 229th All Saints Scout Group (their colours of neckerchief white with red edge) which at that time the 229th had recently built a new HQ on waste land adjacent to the camp site main entrance which is now Kendrick Avenue and opposite York Crescent, however it seems the 229th Scout Group has since been disbanded and its group name joins with the 179th 1st Yorks Wood Group as preserved historical information.
The 229th Scout HQ tenure now belongs to the155th Scout Beaver and Cub Group.
To date both the 184th & the155th are still operational but sadly their HQ's suffer the usual mindless destructive vandalism and graffiti that is all to common these days.

below 179th 1st Yorks Wood HQ and scouts followed by Yorks Wood Troop camping pictures.



Albert Bedney was the caretaker/ranger and resided in the cottage opposite the cub field for a good number of years along with his family and his trusted companion .....KIM... his dog (which was of a husky type breed.)
When the Scout association sold the land to Birmingham City Council Albert moved to a new campsite which is now called Blackwell Adventure. a scout camp in Bromsgrove and stayed until his retirement.
Attached are some pics of 179th 1st Yorks Wood Scout Troop camping in various locations on the Yorkswood campsite.
1st Pic is in the Rover field behind their HQ. LtoR...Senior Scouts & Troop Leader. NOTE: one of the Griffins in the background...
2nd Pic outside of 179th 1st Yorkswood Troop HQ LtoR..( Rover Scout) Troop Leader & Senior Scouts.
3rd Pic Senior Scouts outside Rover Guest House.
Others pics showing 179th scouts camping in various locations on the camp site along with a pic showing a totem pole with swimming pool in the far background and the scout camp fire hollow which was the larger of the two where many many a happy hour was spent singing songs round the camp fire wrapped in various style home made camp fire blankets.

 

[Happyguy]

I know that the Totem pole is at a scout group in Ward End, i have seen it many times.

 

[rover]

Yorkswood Scout Camp: Memories from a Scouter Mr Bloxham

Yorkswood was opened in 1923; it was setup to allow cubs and scouts from all over Birmingham to come and camp independently, but with the advantage of having a responsible adult on call in case of an emergency.
When the site was acquired it was farmland and woods and came with a very rundown farmhouse, the total land acquired for camping was approximately 200 acres which included approx 23 acres of woodland.
The main entrance was a narrow lane which ran along one side of Longmeadow Girls School (which is now housing) and started at the junction of Freasley Road and Longmeadow Crescent and ran through to the far end of the site ending at the scout camp wardens cottage. The lane now is called Kendrick Avenue and was flanked by 7 foot high stone Griffins/Gargoyles that came from the roof of Lewis’s department store in Bull Street/Corporation street but originally came from Lewis's predecessor (Newbury's).

On entering the campsite a little way down the drive on the left hand side was a car park, the old farmhouse was in the middle of the site. The Scout field was top right, the Rover field bottom left and the Cub field was top left.
Running along the bottom of the camping fields acting as a boundary line between the woods and the camping fields was a stream that had to be crossed before you could enter the woods.
During the 1st World War before the scout association purchased the site the woods were badly damaged and left in an awful state, large trees having been cut down for the war effort.

The woods were well known for the bluebells and wildlife, a bird sanctuary was eventually set up for their protection.
In the early days of camping there was no piped water and all drinking water was drawn from a well. The cooking of course was on wood fires.
The nearest transport to the site was the Fox & Goose which meant scouts from all over the city having to walk pushing their trek carts filled with camping equipment quite a distance, often taking 2 hours or more through fields & farmland. The barn adjacent to the farmhouse was converted into a locker store room that could be rented out each season, this enabled the various scout troops to leave equipment at the site to save transporting it back and forth.
A water supply was eventually laid on to the scout and cub fields.
After the 2nd World War two night camps came into being, before that time Saturday working meant scouts would arrive late Saturday and leave for home on Sunday.

Ablutions (Toilets/showers) in the form of a brick type buildings were built along with a site swimming pool, the mounds of earth which was dug out to create the pool were left by the side of the area and poplar trees were planted to screen the pool, this proved to be a bad idea as the pool became clogged with the fallen leaves. It was planned to keep the pool filled with water from a stream (an offshoot from the nearby River Cole) which ran adjacent to the pool, this idea was soon dropped due to the purity of the water and a piped supply was used.
Changing huts were also built at the pool.
A desperate need for a solid shelter prompted the building of the McKenzie scout hut which was a brick type building and could hold three to four hundred scouts.
The first camp fire hollow was created in 1930 with 8 or 9 tiers and centre stage, and a second smaller hollow for the cubs followed at a later date.

The first Rover scout meeting was held at Yorkswood and it soon became a meeting place for scouts from all over the Uk and Europe.
The Bishop of Lichfield along with Lord Baden Powell the founder of the Scouting movement visited Yorkswood and led the (SCOUTS OWN) which was a church service held in the open air.. An area for worship was created in the woods for a chapel which had its own entrance which was situated at the bottom of the cub field with altar and wooden cross.

A store of dry wood logs which was named (The woodpile) was very important because with the number of fires that were needed each week the woods would have soon been denuded, so local builders were asked to provide wood which was stored centrally and scouts paid a small fee for the right to use it.

As the scouts were allowed to camp independently, Scout Commissioners took it in turn to patrol the camp site at weekends and to be the Scouter in charge, at a later date a Warden was appointed to do this task.
A local farmer exchanged land on the side of the drive to make the main entrance longer and wooden gates were fitted followed by Iron Gates at a later date to help keep the site secure.
The gates were flanked by two Totem poles, one of which belonged to the Yorkswood Rover Scouts the other was made by Mr Bloxham’s troop.
The Feeney hut was built for the use of the Cub scouts, the packs were allowed to use the Feeney hut to sleep in if they chose not to sleep under canvas.
The hut sited at the original entrance was called Ellis Island and this was the place to report upon arrival at the site and from here camp pitches were allocated. Permanent fireplace areas were made and the farm cottage was converted into a shop for supplies and a permanent residence for a caretaker/warden.

A training centre was set up for Scouters, officers of the movement and adults, it had its own sewage system and was used to train Scouters in outdoor pursuits and woodcraft. Scouts doing their First Class attainment level were tested on the field often by Training Officers.

The advent of the motor car and improved transport links made Yorkswood more accessible but also gave the opportunity for Scout Troops to go further afield and explore other camp sites, this and the unfortunate constant vandalism in the 60's early 70's the site became very expensive to maintain and difficult to secure stored equipment and buildings and a descision was made to close the camp and sell it off.

Yorkswood was re-developed by Birmingham City Council and housing now stands on the camping fields, no scout buildings remain but the main entrance drive now (Kendrick Avenue) still has a few Gargoyles/Griffins in residents on each side to remind one of where..... THE ADVENTURE STARTED.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The scout camp closed in 1972 much of the woods of Yorkswood still remains to the west of Kingshurst down to the River Cole as do the camp fire hollows although a little overgrown, the woods were cared for by the Yorkswood Preservation Society based in Solihull.
.
It was designated a Local Nature Reserve c1990.


The site was purchased for the sum of £3000 and sold to Birmingham City Council for a Quarter of a Million.

 

[jennyann]

Thanks for this extensive history of Yorkswood. So interesting to through this important piece of local history. There has always been a great interest in Yorkswood for Brummies over the years as so many of the boys went to camp there, including my brother who was in a cub group in Erdington in the late 1940's. I still have the list of gear that was required for him to take. Very often people want to know the history of the statues lining the drive to the camp. They were originally on the roof of Lewis's Department Store in Birmingham and were donated to Yorkswood.

 

[rover]

More info and pics at :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorks_Wood

https://billdargue.jimdo.com/placenames-gazetteer-a-to-y/places-y/yorkswood/

 

[Ivor]

I recently acquired this postcard showing the famous totem-pole, it was removed to the Scouts Hall in Rogers Rd Ward End.

 

[carolann123]

Hello all does anyone have a map of Yorks wood when the scouts owned it.One showing the various buildings that were there

 

[rover]

Hello all does anyone have a map of Yorks wood when the scouts owned it.One showing the various buildings that were there

Hi Carolann, if you open google earth... zoom in to Yorks Wood area..you can, set the historic imagery slider to the 1940's this shows the area and some buildings which are just about visible........

 

[Phil]

Hello all does anyone have a map of Yorks wood when the scouts owned it.One showing the various buildings that were there

Hi Carolann

I don't know if this is any use to you, but it's a proposed plan of how the camp was to be set out when it opened on 1923.

 

[pjmburns]

Hi Carol, if you open google earth... zoom in to Yorks Wood area..you can, set the historic imagery slider to the 1940's this shows the area and some buildings which are just about visible.

I thought the zoomer was here https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=52.4918&lon=-1.7660&layers=10&b=1 - is there one on google as well?

 

[adap2it]

Interesting to note that as a boy scout in Brum, we would refer to it as York Woods, not Yorkswood. I had no idea it was the other way round.
Dave A

 

[Vivienne14]

This postcard image has a posting date of 1945. Viv.

 

[rover]

This postcard image has a posting date of 1945. Viv.

View attachment 153797

 

[rover]

Great Pics Viv...i recognise the scene well although a little before my time apart from the lack of maturing trees and hedges instantly recognisable. The brick building in the rear of the photo was named McKenzie Hut with another smaller brick building behind that named Feeney Hut followed by a combined toilet block with needle point freezing cold showers & the caretakers cottage.
thx for posting

Yorks wood Castle Bromwich .pic taken 2021 from almost the same location.

 

[Vivienne14]

Maybe a member remembers this ? Sorry edge of the article was cut off when BNA scanned. Viv.

 

[rover]

This postcard image has a posting date of 1945. Viv.

View attachment 153797

This picture image taken in 2021 almost from the same position.

View attachment 153797

 

[rover]

More historic pics...any memories?

 

[rover]

Memories ?

 

[rover]

More memories

 

[rover]

Memories

 

[rover]

Memories

 

[Richard Dye]

Memories

Great pics Rover!

 

[Jeannie]

Memories

I remember the scout camp fire, Going with the guides ,sitting on those logs eating baked beans in tomatoe soup from my enamel dish and singing things like ging gang gooly gooly , must have been around 1959/60

 

[Brummie a long time ago]

ging gang gooly gooly

gooly gooly ging gang goo, ging gang goo. Me too, about the same time period. With the cubs though .
Andrew.

 

[Janet Hunt]

gooly gooly ging gang goo, ging gang goo. Me too, about the same time period. With the cubs though .
Andrew.

Hayla hala shayla, Hala shayla hala, h-o-o. I also went camping as girl girl guide in the 60's at York's wood , had my home made "billie can" with me. Also helped my Mom who was a Brown Owl with the Brownies when they camped there. memories Love em!!