STORIES of life in the Guides over the last 90 years were a fascinating part of a special anniversary event for the 2nd Coleford unit.

Current Guides were joined at the Evergreen Hall in Broadwell by Guides and Guiders from across the years as the unit celebrated its 90th anniversary.

The Guides, dressed in uniforms from across the decades, served tea to their guests and also performed a song.

The tea was made by the Guides and the adult volunteers who run the group and the girls also made their guests a copy of the organisation’s current Promise.

Guider Emma Steel said: “I want to thank our Guides and our volunteers who make it possible.

“I would also like to thank Jeannette (McGhee) who had the foresight to collect the historic uniforms which add so much to the occasion.

“This is a very special celebration for 2nd Coleford Guides and we have tried to contact as many former Guides as possible.

“Not everyone has been able to make the celebration but we are hoping to collect the memories of as many of them as possible.”

Among the guests was Alma Hinton who became a Guide on February 20 1936 and later went on to become a Guider, the adults who run the units, and was a Cub leader.

In those days the Evergreen Hall was a church and was the meeting place for the Girls’ Friendly Society (GFS) which would become part of the 2nd Coleford Guides.

She said: “On our shoulder badges, it said: “GFS 2nd Coleford”.

Mrs Hinton brought along a copy of the essay she wrote to become a fully-fledged member of the GFS as a 12-year-old in 1937 and which was judged the best in Gloucestershire and third best in the whole world.

One memory that has stuck with her was the time she sold the Guide leader’s coat for sixpence at a jumble.

“We were having a jumble sale and I sold the captain’s coat – I had to go to Barnhill (in Broadwell) to get it back.

She said: “We did all sorts of activities and I made a lot friends. I have enjoyed my life.”

Her great-granddaughters are carrying on the tradition – Caitlyn is a Guide and Lexi is a Brownie.

Janet Roberts was a Brownie but not a Guide but ended up becoming a Guider when the leader left in the mid-1960s.

There was no formal training for the role so she picked up a copy of a book by Scouting founder Baden-Powell “and you learn a lot from that.”

With numbers in Rangers – the group for older girls – low, it was decided to combine them with the Guides.

She said: “The Rangers helped the Guides and it worked brilliantly.”

The most anticipated activity was camping with the girls pitching tents in the Forest at venues such as Pingry Farm at Milkwall and Bracelands near Coleford.

She said: “Camp was the most important thing and we tried to go out of county whenever we could.

“Camp was an experience for them – some had never peeled a potato before – and it made them grow up.”

There was one incident which highlights the different thinking on health and safety between now and the late 60s and early 70s.

They had taken a cooker with a large gas bottle to camp but the pipe worked loose and set the contents of the canister on fire.

She said: “We had four large dustbins full of water but we could not put it out – we bought a fire extinguisher after that.”

The sense of adventure is still alive in the Guide movement and it is still attracting girls between the ages of 10 and 14.

Twelve-year-old Kara Burris, who has been with 2nd Coleford for about two years, said: “It’s so much fun, you meet new people and there are lots of opportunities.

“We do all sorts of activities, a lot of baking and crafts which is great fun and we go and do things like bag packing for events such as the International (meet-up).”

Kara was wearing the modern Girl Guide uniform which is designed to accommodate the very active nature of the movement.

Courtney Bradley, who is 11, had a uniform from the 1920s but would not swap her more relaxed style for it.

She said: “There’s too much to put on – we do a lot of active things and I don’t think it would be very good for that.”

The historic uniforms came from the collection of Jeannette McGhee, a former Guider at 2nd Coleford and now county archivist for the Guides in Gloucestershire.

Mrs McGhee, who lives in Longhope, takes the uniforms to Guide units around the county – and Courtney’s experience not uncommon.

She said: “I started collecting uniforms because we had the centenary coming up in 2010.

“I looked on E-Bay and there were lots of them. They are authentic uniforms but then I had to collect ties and hats.

“I take them to different units and the girls can see what it was like dressing in the uniforms of by-gone years which they like – until they realise how uncomfortable they can be.”

Mrs McGhee became the Guider in 1999 when the unit had shrunk to just eight girls.

“I worked at the Jobcentre and they discovered I was a Guider in Devon and asked me if I would become Guider here.

“Our mission was to build it up – which we did – and there has been a thriving unit ever since.

“It is still a very good unit with Emma and her team.”

The unit was registered in 1927 but there are gaps in its history since then, said Mrs McGhee.

She said: “We don’t know who the original Guiders were but we do know there were efforts by headquarters to close the unit down in the war years.

“In those days you needed an adult – a captain – and an assistant, a lieutenant.

The captain had to be older than 21 but single women of that age had been called up to help the war effort and so they were running with a lieutenant who was 18.

“Technically, headquarters could not have that but the girls just carried on and it never closed.”

Much of the unit’s history – like others around the country – will “end in people’s attics” and so there are gaps.

Mrs McGhee said: “The ladies have brought along some wonderful history, but what is going to happen to that history?

“The good thing with modern technology is that you can borrow records and scan them to get a copy.

The Guides have a large archive of material stored at the Gloucestershire Record Office but Mrs McGhee said she is always interested in items which may be considered for the archive.

Anyone with Guide-related material can contact her on 01452 830601 or e-mail Jeannettemcghee@ btinternet.com

•See this week’s Review for more photographs.