Gilwell Park is a campsite and activity centre for Scouting groups, as well as a training and conference centre for Scout Leaders. The 44 hectare (109 acre) site is located in Sewardstonebury, Epping Forest close to Chingford, London. In the late Middle Ages, it started as a farm, growing to a wealthy estate that fell into disrepair towards 1900. It was given in 1919 by Scout Commissioner William De Bois Maclaren to The Scout Association of the United Kingdom to provide camping facilities to London Scouts, and training facilities for Scouters. As Scout Leaders from all countries of the world have come to Gilwell Park for their Wood Badge training, it is one of the great landmarks of the world Scouting movement. The site contains campfields for a small patrol up to a 1200 people camp, indoor accommodations, historical sites, monuments of Scouting, and activities suitable for all sections of the Scouting Movement. It can accommodate events for up to 10,000 people. Accommodation of Gilwell Park can also be hired for non-Scout activities such as school group camping, wedding receptions and conferences.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilwell_Park
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1471: Wars of the Roses: Yorkist Edward IV defeated a Lancastrian army in the Battle of Tewkesbury. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tewkesbury)
1855: William Walker and a group of mercenaries sailed from San Francisco to conquer Nicaragua. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(soldier))
1919: The May Fourth Movement began in China with large-scale student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, Peking against the Paris Peace Conference and Japan's Twenty-One Demands. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fourth_Movement)
1970: The Ohio National Guard shot at students in Kent State University protesting the American invasion of Cambodia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings)
1979: Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher)
_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:
The life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. -- T. H. Huxley (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Huxley)