If I’m sluggish this morning, it’s because my day started early — taking my
oldest son out for a sunrise ceremony at Stonehenge to mark the 100th
anniversary of the Scouting movement.
One hundred years ago today, Robert Baden-Powell held an experimental camp for
boys that led to Scouts being formed. The World Jamboree is now taking place a
few hours from us in Essex, but Scouts all over the world
are marking the
anniversary in various ways. For us, it meant a trip to Stonehenge.
Scouts from our local
Salisbury Plain District gathered at around 7:15 in the parking lot outside
Stonehenge:
As you can see, the sun was already up for our sunrise ceremony — but it was
still early!
We stormed the Stonehenge entrance:
Marched on the monument:
Where parents were diverted on to the grass in front of the stones. As the
grass was wet, I figured I’d stand on one of the fallen stones:
Yeah, I can hear some of you now — horrors! How can you stand on the
precious Stonehenge stones. Easy. I walked right on it. It’s a big rock. It’s
been there for 6,000 years. During the solstice, the entire place is opened up
to thousands, and they pretty much give up on trying to police the stones (see
my Stonehenge category for past
posts about the solstice and visiting Stonehenge). Standing on that stone (it
has a name — I can’t remember it right now — was no big deal).
Well, it was to the Stonehenge security guard. He moved me and several others
off it. Small children not part of the Scouts later tried to walk on it, causing
parents to shoo them off. Meanwhile, the Scouts themselves couldn’t go inside
the circle because the ground was too damp to bear their weight. Heh. English
Heritage is notorious for being way to overprotective of the stones. I think
they’d have survived.
No matter — the Scouts came around:
Got assembled:
Then after a countdown to 8am, a kudu horn was sounded as Baden-Powell did
all those years before. You can hear it in the video below, which is about all
you can hear of the ceremony!
We got a Scout salute at the end:
Then it was marching back time:
One of them is mine. If you know my taste for Californian footwear, look
close for the Old Skools to spot him:
He’s a Cub now, but two years ago, I went with him when he was a Beaver to
historic
Brownsea Island, where that
first camp was held. Here’s the group at
the camp marker:
Here’s a closer look at the marker. Sorry about those two Beavers in the way!
By the way, I was a Cub Scout very briefly — a Webelos Cub Scout, for about
half of fourth grade. I tried to find a nice page at the
Boy Scouts Of America site to explain the
various type of scout levels like
this one from the UK
association (being the first association, they’re simply called The Scouts
Association). Sadly, no such simply guide was easily found.
All in all, a nice morning — ended by a trip to
Reeves The Baker. My son went
for a pasty for breakfast. Mmm — good choice!
On Monday, big decision. Should I take the day off and go out to the World
Jamboree with him? Maybe — how cool to see some of the 20th gathering. Plus, a
semi-Orange County connection. Jamboree Blvd, which runs down to Newport? Named
after the Boy Scouts Of America’s third jamboree held where Fashion Island now
sits, back in
1953. There’s even a historical marker at Fashion Island commemorating it. A
little more low-key than the one on Brownsea Island. Less a stone monument and
more a small brass plaque.
