Category Archives: Group

News and Info for the whole Group

Monopoly Run 2025

The Mill Lane Scout troops took five teams to London this year for Monopoly Run Live – a Scout organised event with 8000 participants.

Monopoly Run ‘Live’ is a real-time version of the popular Monopoly Run (London) board game. It is played in a single day in central London and involves visiting the actual sites that the board game is based on.

We end up playing against five or six other teams that have signed up, some local but others travel from far away.

Continue reading Monopoly Run 2025

Christmas Camp Adventures at Hamlet Wood

The scout troops headed off the Hamlet Wood near Maidstone in December for their annual Christmas Camp.

It turned out to be a bit of an eventful weekend as winter storm Darragh made its way though Kent

As you would expect, pitching tents took a little bit longer than normal, and supper and bed was a bit late.

We did manage to do our usual Christmas Quiz before heading to bed.

On Saturday they did manage to use the climbing tower in the dry (well mostly dry), however they did concentrate on more indoor activities than normal at other times.

The scouts used their bushcraft skills to make reindeer and their crafty ones to make wreaths and baubles.

Once again the catering plan worked well. Highlights were obviously the spit-roast turkey and all the trimmings, and the pulled pork rolls. 💕

After dinner we held our usual Christmas Carol-fire, Christmas campfire skits and a silent(ish) disco!

We were lucky enough to stay dry while we packed away and believe it or not the tents were nearly dry.

Thank you as always to the leaders and helpers that made it all happen and the scouts for coming along to give us an excuse.

Thank you to the volunteers at Hamlet Wood campsite for hosting us.

If this looks like something you would like to do, then you can join scouting too! As an adult or a young person.

Hammocking in Hammerwood

The Mill Lane scout troops spent this weekend at Hammerwood Scout Campsite, between East Grinstead and Holtye in West Sussex

With a lightweight camp, we tend not to use any canvas at all, apart from a giant tarp as a mess tent, and hike tents for those that find hammocks a bit intimidating.

We were blessed with an almost completely dry weekend this time, although Wet Wood (the name of the wood the campsite forms part) is never actually dry.

Activities

The camp was a laid-back affair with quite a lot of time for the scouts to do their own thing. We did manage to organise

  • Rope swings
  • Wide games in the dark (no photos, it was dark)
  • Rounders
  • Campfire sketches
Continue reading Hammocking in Hammerwood

Night Hike to Westerham

Swift Troop organised a set of night hikes to Westerham this week in a joint adventure with Seal, Ide Hill and Westerham Scout Troops.

Walking groups converged on Westerham from six directions, with groups departing from Downe, Halstead, Ide Hill and Merle Common (half way between Edenbridge and Oxted)

Taking photographs of scouts walking in the dark wearing high-vis tops is always challenging, here are some of them starting out, some having mid-hike hot chocolate and a couple of scouts-on-the-horizon ones.

All of the scouts looked pleased to get to the hut for a sit down and a bite to eat!

If this looks like something you would like to do please join us – either as an adult volunteer or as a young person. Get in touch with us.

#iscout #scoutinginSevenoaks

2024 AGM Details

Details of this year’s AGM and associated documents are now on the web-site under Group News | Annual General Meetings.

Documents Updated!

Thank you everyone that joined us on Friday, we really appreciate you coming 💕

Further to what our Chair Tony said, if anyone feels they could help with anything (not just the list of things he read out), please join the I think I can help WhatsApp group in our scout community.

Not everything that needs doing has to be done at the hut, there is loads of admin that can be done any time from home.

Summer Camp 2024 – Wye Valley

This year a joint party from Chapman, Swift and Seal Scout troops camped next to the River Wye, one bridge crossing away from Wales and the Forest of Dean.

We were blessed with a beautiful week in a pretty miserable summer and were able to run two patrols.

During camp we…

  • Pitched camp
  • Wide games
  • Climbed up some really steep hills
  • Explored a cave
  • Found a rope swing
  • Found a geocache
  • Prepared dinner (and breakfast and lunch…)
  • Played with the fire
  • Competed in camp Olympics
  • Natural rock climbing
  • Washed up
  • Orienteering trail
  • Full day MTB ride and hardly fell off at all
  • Canoeing up the river Wye and went for a dip
  • More wide games
  • Prepared and lit fires
  • Hike to Simonds Yat
  • Crossing the River Wye using a rope barge
  • Visit butterfly farm
  • Frisbee
  • Struck camp
  • Helped put all the kit away
Continue reading Summer Camp 2024 – Wye Valley

Monopoly Run 2024

The 4th and the 9th Sevenoaks took 7 teams to London on Saturday, competing in the annual Monopoly Run Live competition organised by a team from Hampshire Scouts.

The competition has grown over the years until this year when they have capped the entry at 8,000 competitors.

This year the run started from the Imperial War Museum instead of the usual London Eye. After a very damp first hour, the day brightened up and we even saw the sun in the afternoon.

The teams were generally not competing with each other this year, which meant more of the teams could taste success! Our top teams came 19th and 22nd overall out of over 1400 teams (well done Cars and Hustlers!)

Here are a selection of photos from the day

Continue reading Monopoly Run 2024

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone at the group a warm and merry Christmas and a great 2024.

  • To the children of all ages for attending meetings and enjoying yourselves
  • To all the parents for responding to all those emails, and helping the young people get to the right place, at the right time, with the right stuff!
  • To the leaders for all their organising and patience
  • To the adult volunteers who do so much behind the scenes work to manage the charity, support the leaders, and to keep the site and grounds a safe and enjoyable place to scout.

Thank you so much to everyone at the group

Have a great break and see you all after the holidays!

#iScout #Sevenoaks #SevenoaksScouts