kimerajamm
Joined: 28 Nov 2010
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 England by William |
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The estate's condition declined more during the 1910s. William F. de Bois Maclaren was a publisher and Scout Commissioner from Rosneath, Dumbartonshire, Scotland. During a business trip to London, Maclaren was saddened to see that Scouts in the East End had no suitable outdoor area to conduct their activities. He contacted Lord Robert Baden-Powell, who appointed P. B. Nevill to handle the matter. Nevill was Scout Commissioner of the East End. On 20 November 1918 over dinner at Roland House, the Scout Hostel in Stepney, Maclaren agreed to donate £7,000 to the project. Part of the agreement included narrowing the areas to look for suitable land to Hainault Forest and Epping Forest. Rover Scouts searched both without success, but then John Gayfer, a young assistant scoutmaster, suggested Gilwell Hall, a place he went bird-watching. Nevill visited the estate and was impressed, though the buildings were in poor condition. The estate was for sale for £7,000, the price Maclaren had donated.[1] The estate totaled 21 hectare (53 acres) at the time.
The estate was purchased in early 1919 by Maclaren for the Boy Scout Association. Nevill first took his Rover Scouts to begin repairing the estate on Maundy Thursday, 17 April 1919. On this visit, the Rovers slept in the gardener's shed in the orchard because the ground was so wet they could not pitch tents. They called this shed "The Pigsty" and though dilapidated, it still stands, as it is the site of the first Scout campsite at Gilwell Park. Maclaren was a frequent visitor to Gilwell Park and helped repair the buildings. His dedication was so great that he donated another £3,000. Maclaren's interest had been in providing a campground, but Baden-Powell envisioned a training centre for Scouters. An official opening was planned for 19 June 1919 but it was delayed until Saturday, 26 June 1919 so that Scouts could participate in the Official Peace Festival commemorating the end of World War I. Invitations were changed by hand to save money.[1] Significant remodeling and construction was done in the 1920s. Because of limited finances, few improvements were made during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Baden-Powell never lived at Gilwell Park but he often camped, lectured, taught courses, and attended meetings. He emphasized the importance of Scouters' training at Gilwell Park for Scouting by taking it as the territorial designation in his peerage title of 1st Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell in 1929 when the barony was conferred upon him by the king.[4]
Origin of the Axe and Log Totem
The axe and log logo was conceived by the first Camp Chief, Francis Gidney, in the early 1920s to distinguish Gilwell Park from the Scout Headquarters. Gidney wanted to associate Gilwell Park with the outdoors and Scoutcraft rather than the business or administrative Headquarters offices. Scouters present at the original Wood Badge courses regularly saw axe blades masked for safety by being buried in a log. Seeing this, Gidney chose the axe and log as the totem of Gilwell Park.[5] This logo came to be strongly associated with Wood Badge leader training and is still used on certificates, flags, and other program-related items.
The symbol of the axe in the log is associated with feudalism after the invasion and conquest of England by William the Conqueror. In that era, property, including forests, were owned by the landed barons and knights. Serfs, bound to the land in a form of modified slavery, were forbidden to cut wood from trees in the forest, and only permitted to gather downed wood. Freemen were given the right of loppage, or permission to cut limbs from the nobleman's trees as high as they could reach with an axe.[6] A freeman who carried an axe in a nobleman's forest demonstrated that he had earned the right by service. Symbolically, the grain of an axe handle must be straight and true and "set square in the eye of the head." The steel head must have the proper temper and be kept sharp. To be useful in the hands of a skilled freeman, an axe also needed to be well-balanced, otherwise the handle might break, endangering its user. The axe represented skilled laborers who had proven themselves through service. Lastly, the axe in the wood reminds those who have completed Wood Badge that they have committed themselves to be an example of service and fealitydentist sydney cbd dental implants porcelain veneers
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