In the outskirts of Barton-le-Clay in Bedfordshire, with stunning views across Sharpenhoe Clappers, a new £¾ million structure is taking shape that will enhance the natural beauty of the area according to the county’s planning department. Is it a retirement pad for a rich city gent? Or perhaps a pop star wants his own version of Gracelands? No, it’s none of these. It’s a Scout and Guide hut for the village’s 250 enthusiastic youngsters. A tithe barn design, it will be unlike any other Scout and Guide hut in the whole of Great Britain.

In Bear Grylls style, the Scouts and Guides are well used to roughing it in tents or makeshift shelters or just a sleeping bag under the stars. Their headquarters would hardly be described as elegant and stylish. More like basic and practical. So what possessed the good folk of Barton to dig deep into their pockets for what one eight year old described as a palace?

In the words of Guide Leader Linda Perry, “It has not been an easy journey. We would have been quite happy with the sectional building we had before but circumstance changed.” She described the early days of the group before they had any building to their name. She said, “We used to meet in the old school in the main street now a Chinese takeaway. Then, in 1963, Leslie Sell, MD of Janes the Builders, donated us two site huts for our first headquarters. I was a teenage Guide at the time with not much more then a Home Help Badge to my name but I trundled up and down the alleyway to the site carrying tons of bricks in a wheelbarrow. We built the foundations and builders’ lorries came with the flatpack huts and erected them for us. They have been our headquarters ever since. The Guides met in one half and the Scouts in the other for over 40 years. It was great fun.

“For years we survived the attentions of the local vandals who broke in and stole our gear. They often scrawled graffiti on the walls. I remember the spelling was atrocious! Gradually the whole structure started to fall apart and no amount of repairs helped. In 1990 the Scout and Guide group set up a planning committee to find a replacement and identify the funds needed. It was a two year project we thought with nothing grander than a sectional hut with space for expansion. No one at the time had any idea it would take 20 years out of our lives and cost a fortune.”

Group Scout Leader Dave Whitaker arrived in Barton in 1990 just as the new HQ project got underway. He said, “The lease on the old site was about to expire and we were given the option of a long term lease at a peppercorn rent on ground near to the Rugby Football Club. The area was ideal with plenty of natural vegetation round about, good camping nearby and a centre for nature study hikes all over the place. But Bedfordshire planners soon wiped the smile from our faces. This was not going to be your traditional Scout and Guide hut. To paraphrase their statement: ‘When viewed from the Clappers the building had to enhance the beauty of the local environment and fit in with the natural features of the locality. You could say that again.”

Dave said, “Our architects worked wonders. They came up with a building that fitted the bill perfectly. It’s designed around a tithe barn structure with solid wooden walls on a low brick surround. It’s a far cry from any Scout and Guide hut I know but it will fit our needs and those of the Guides well into the future.

“The first cost estimates were an eye watering £300,000 but we set to and raised money from grants, coffee mornings, buy a brick and sponsored events that the Scouts and Guides planned. Meanwhile, the old hut was falling apart. The Guides moved to nearby school premises and the village hall. The Scouts stayed put but kept our boisterous games to a minimum. One day the back wall fell out. We put it all back and repaired the damage but we knew we were living on borrowed time.

“The legal side of the business seemed to take for ever. And all the time the building expenses kept rising. With construction costs increasing at 6 to 10% per year the original estimate was now up to £750,000 and rising.” Dave reckoned that their fund raising was no longer keeping up with the rising bill for the new building.

The planning committee, headed by chairman Carol Barnes and long serving and patient secretary Liz Gudgion had the often frustrating job of taking their project to county and other officials. They frequently came away from these meetings with more questions than answers. There were planning permission meetings, meetings to discuss the lease hold of the land they were using. There were views about the suitability of the construction materials and questions about who to sue if things went horribly wrong. Carol said, “It was not until earlier this year that we had all the documents signed and we took a view that it was now or never. We had enough money for the first phase and the will to go out and raise another £88,000 to complete phase two in time for an opening next Easter. There were no fireworks or balloons it was just a quick telephone call to the builder saying it’s time to start.” Phase 3 and 4 will need more fund raising efforts taking the final tally to well over £750,000.

Carol and her team are now devising all manner of fund raising efforts. One which they hope will take off is an engraved paving stone. For £20 anyone can have their name or a goodwill message engraved on one of the paving slabs being laid around the outside of the building. Carol quipped, “It’s the Barton equivalent of Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard.”

At a recent opening ceremony a small crowd braved the rain to celebrate the topping out of the main wall performed by Brownie Amy Rowe and Cub Scout Ben Brown. Amy, armed with her trowel said, “It’s going to be like a palace.” A giant spade, loaned by Poplars Garden Centre, showed just how big the project had grown since it started 20 years ago. Carol said, “It’s like a fairy tale come true.”

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