It’s not long go until Family Camp 2025 and the leadership team are working hard to get things ready. We’re now in a position to confirm final details. Please read all the information in this document to make sure you’ve got the right stuff and you know where to be and when. If you are struggling to get hold of anything on the kit list or you have any questions, reach out and we’ll see what we can do.

When: The camp opening ceremony will be at 8pm on Friday July 11th. You will be able to access the site from 5pm on Friday July 11th (earlier by arrangement)to give you a chance to pitch your tent and settle in. It’s really important to be there for the opening ceremony because we’ll talk a lot about how the rest of the weekend will work. Camp will close at 2pm on Sunday July 13th, assuming you have all been super helpful and supported our volunteers in packing up all the group gear. Please don’t plan to sneak off before this time. It’s not fair on the rest of us and you might miss out on winning a prize!

Where: We will be at Dilston Scout Camp Site just outside Hexham. I’ll give you a postcode in a moment, but before I do, please understand that the location is a field and the postcode will only get you so far.

This is the gateway you are aiming for on the main road: https://goo.gl/maps/ZGXacRmCb9sjEgCp6 

or ///fights.feels.wire for the What3Words fans

When you turn in you then follow the track to here: https://goo.gl/maps/ZGXacRmCb9sjEgCp6 or 

///insolvent.eternally.brave

The postcode is NE45 5RA. The management of the site want me to make it very clear that there is no access via the turn with the sign to Dilston Physic Garden regardless of what your sat nav might say. So DO NOT turn in here: https://goo.gl/maps/dN9H6gcP58ZS9EEv8

Once you reach the car park beside, you have reached the end of your journey. Come and find a member of staff and they will point you to a place to pitch your tent. We are not allowed to take any vehicles onto the field, so you will need to carry all your gear by hand. Bear this in mind before thinking of packing your baby grand piano.

Programme for the Weekend: At the opening ceremony you’ll be put in teams for the weekend and Friday night will be a chance to sit round the fire and have a chat with your new teammates and get to know everyone and plot your possible victory in the team points competition. There may be some games for the more enthusiastic young (and older) people, but mainly we’ll be aiming to get to sleep early because we have a full day on Saturday. We will provide hot chocolate and some cake for supper, but we won’t give you an evening meal, so eat before you arrive.

Saturday will start early, with breakfast around 8am to give us plenty of time to eat, wash up and get prepared for the first activity at 9:30. Each patrol will have a 45 minute session on each of the activity bases throughout the day. You can expect to make rockets and boats, walk our blindfold string trail, cook some snacks on the fire and shoot some targets on the rifle range, as well as loads more things. We’ll break for lunch in amongst that and aim to be wrapped up on the bases in time for dinner at 6pm. After dinner we’ll be back round the campfire to sing some scouting songs. If we have any musicians and singers amongst our number, musical instruments are a welcome addition to the entertainment.

Sunday won’t be such a rush to get up. After breakfast we’ll pause for a moment of reflection at Scouts’ Own, then we’ll collect up our boats and rockets from Saturday so we can race the boats down the river and see how far your rockets fly. We’ll also have a rubber duck race. Don’t forget to bring a few pounds so you can buy a duck in the race and support the group’s fundraising. We also take contactless payments, so there’s no escape! 

This year will see the debut of our Open Category Model Boat Race. Alongside the paper boats and rockets you have the opportunity to build a boat of your own design and race it down the river. One of the bases will give you time to create your boat. The only restrictions are: It must be built on site over the weekend; it cannot cover a bigger footprint than 35cm x 25cm; it cannot contain any liquid (other than river water at the end); it cannot have any loose parts or be painted in a way that could pollute the river. So please bring your recycling or other materials to build your best boat.

After lunch we’ll mainly be taking down all the camping gear and packing it away before counting up the team points and finishing with a closing ceremony.

Activity Form

We plan to run air rifle shooting as a base on camp, and we expect to be able to support all our participants, including the very youngest people on camp. Before anyone can shoot we must have a completed shooting permission form.

You can do that in advance here: https://bartonscouts.co.uk/1st-barton-air-rifle-shooting-permission-form/

We’ll have this link handy over the weekend in case you forget, but you’ll make our life easier by completing it in advance.

Here are a couple of notes and reminders

  • We cannot get caravans into the field. In theory you could put your van in the car park, but that’s not too sociable and space in the car park will be limited. Plan to sleep in a tent! We have spares if you need to borrow one. Let us know in advance so we can get one taken up there for you.
  • Dogs are not allowed on site
  • All the young people (with the exception of our Explorer staff) are under parental supervision for the weekend, so it’s a rare chance for leaders to bring a small beer/wine/rum/Champagne to the campfire for the evening. You’re more than welcome to join us in having a drink round the fire, but please do so in moderation. All-day drinking is definitely off the menu to make sure our activities are safe, and you don’t want to ruin the next day by overdoing it the night before.
  • Smoking/vaping is not allowed anywhere on site. I can point you to the nearest gate to leave the site if you need to.
  • We have a hut with electricity, but that doesn’t mean it’s your permanent phone-charging point. We’ve got various bits of gear to keep charged and fridges to run as well as leaders’ phones to keep topped up for emergencies, so while you’re welcome to charge your phone, you will be back of the queue. Hopefully you’ll be so busy all day that you’ll surprise yourself with how long your battery lasts. If you can manage with your own power banks, then that would be great.

Medical and Dietary Needs

If anyone in your party has any dietary needs or medical conditions we need to be aware of, please complete this form for them:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfg0yJbt-0RH60eWPt2eijmX45NQYtC2t102k7nUYgpXRptYg/viewform?usp=header

You can also provide any other useful information.

There is no need to complete this form if there is nothing to tell us about.

We don’t need to know about anything that you’re happy dealing with in your own camping party, but anything that could require urgent treatment or attention (such as severe allergies) should be notified on the form. If in doubt, tell us!

Kit List

A recommended kit list can be found here.

Thanks for reading this far. If you have any questions please email family.camp@bartonscouts.co.uk and we’ll get back to you.

Looking forward to seeing you there.