About Us
Harpenden and Wheathampstead is geographically one of the smaller Districts in the County of Hertfordshire in the UK. For visitors outside of the UK we are approximately 28 miles or 44 kilometres NNW from central London. Once upon a time the drive time was around an hour but nowadays that is liable to be longer. On the map above our District has been coloured yellow and covers the town of Harpenden and the villages of Wheathampstead to the SE and Kimpton to the NNE.
Our Groups and Units are a mixture of sponsored (Methodist and C of E) and open and from 2007 boys and girls have been welcomed into all sections. Some Groups have been making arrangements to fully integrate both genders into their Scouting program while others have mixed Scouting fully established.
Scouting has been strong in the District since the early days of the Movement and at least one of our Groups has been running non-stop since 1908 even during the years of the World Wars. Several others have been running since the early days too.
The facilities offered to our young people for their time in Scouting within the District are excellent. Most of the Groups have their own HQ buildings and a new joint building was opened in January 2009 for one of the Groups and Units to use. This is also used for Gang Show rehearsals. All of the sections are catered for and some Groups are lucky enough to have more than one colony/pack/troop. We also have 2 Explorer Scout Units, WAKESU who are based in Wheathampstead and HESU who are based in Harpenden. There is some talk that HESU is the largest ESU in Europe but this has yet to be confirmed by BP House. The Scout Network and Fellowship are also very active to keep the older members involved.
The District is proud to be the home of the world renown Harpenden Gang Show This has been in production since 1949 with its annual performance in early January. Cast members are drawn from the Cubs, Scouts and Explorer sections and are not auditioned to take part. The "Front Row", which consists of eight girls and eight boys, are drawn from the Explorer units and are auditioned. This is a demanding role and requires stamina and dedication from the young people at a time when they also have school work to contend with. Please visit the Gang Show website for more information.