Our Home

Our District Headquarters is affectionately known as Scouts’ Corner. Situated on Crozen Lane it has been the home of Scouting in Hereford since 1949. Over its history, Scouts’ Corner has served our District, and the community, well.

The building has a history which predates The Scout Movement itself. Originally the Countess of Huntingdon’s chapel, the building was moved from Berrington Street to its current site in 1889 along with its congregation. It continued to serve as a chapel until the outbreak of World War Two when, in 1940, it was requisitioned by the Home Guard. In 1949 the then District Commissioner of Hereford Scouting, Mr W.G. Ellison, organised the purchase of the site and it has been at the heart of our District ever since.

In the 1980’s the trustees of the time started a project to rebuild Scouts’ Corner as it was started to deteriorate in condition. Unfortunately, the cost of the project was too much for the District at the time and the trustees decided to refurbish the hall instead. The hall has continued to be maintained and refurbished with small upgrades to the heating and toilets, new panelling to protect the internal walls and some redecoration.

The building is now used regularly by 1^st Hereford Scouts as well as a ballet group, spiritualists, and a daytime nursery. Between these groups there are around 150 people who use the hall weekly with others benefitting from ad hoc bookings.

What we need

As a Scout District we manage and support all aspects of Scouting across the majority of Herefordshire. Whether its training adults and holding AGMs or running activities for our young people, we need a home that is fit for purpose and built to last.

A meeting room is desperately needed for small group training, trustee meetings and for our adult appointment process. It would allow us to perform all of our functions as a District without needing to hire other spaces which we do currently. It will also create a more versatile space with the option to have break-out groups within larger meetings.

To provide an exciting, relevant programme of activities for our young people we have a vast array of equipment and resources which all needs to be stored safely. The current storage arrangements at Scouts’ Corner are inadequate in size and condition. The external storage consists of a wooden hut which is now rotting, a concrete prefab garage and a container which are difficult to access and deteriorating in condition. Internally there is very limited storage which has resulted in the use of the loft space accessed by a ladder. Due to the lack of space we currently store a lot of our equipment in an off-site storage facility which we pay for.

We have of course considered whether these needs could be met through further renovation and reconfiguration of the existing buildings. The buildings are of limited lifespan and there would be a significant ongoing cost to upkeep them. There is also limited scope for a reconfiguration of the current space; incorporating a meeting room would significantly reduce either the main hall space or the limited storage space. A key issue is the lifespan of the ageing buildings on site which no amount of work will futureproof; anything other than a rebuild will simply defer these issues to a future generation.