West End Scout Hall

West End Scout Group was first begun in 1913 by Mr Hugh Lightwood and is the oldest surviving Scout group in Palmerston North.

Our proper title is 3rd Palmerston North, West End Scout Group and we technically also incorporate All Saints who were the second oldest.

The Cub Pack was run enthusiastically from 1938 by Akela Collins who ran it until 1954 and at one point had over 40 cubs in the pack (before the days of television of course!)

Our Ferguson Street Hall has been our home since around 1949 when a hall was built on land gifted to us by the Collins family. Prior to this the group met at the West End School site.

The hall was created by putting together a pair of recycled Army huts from Linton. Bizarrely they were turned inside out and then a new skin put on the outside.

The group's scarf colours are black and white and are taken from the West End school just across the road in Botanical Road and are special in New Zealand as only a few groups are allowed to display what are considered by our National office as the National colours of Scouting New Zealand.

Written history of the group can be shown in the way of photographs and records going right back to the start.

The group has existed through two world wars, a great depression, September 11th and numerous events that have changed the world.

Today we are made up of a Cub pack and Scout troop with both boys and girls of all ages from 7 through to 14.