Our History

The First Kidlington Guide Company was founded when a group of girls from East Ham Grammar School evacuated to Thornbury House in 1939, at the onset of the Second World War. The first Captain was a Miss Bubbers and her Lieutenant, Rose Deeley, a Kidlington Teacher.

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1st Kidlington Brownies opened shortly afterwards by Miss Way, also a teacher from East Ham Grammar School, with the Ranger Unit coming into existence in the early forties.

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Meetings were originally held in the Infant school in Blenheim Road, but by the late fifties, the First Kidlington Guide Company met in the Silver Band Hut in the High Street, as did 1st and 2nd Kidlington Brownies, whilst the 3rd Kidlington Brownie Pack met in Edward Feild School Hall. When 2nd Kidlington Guides came along in the early sixties they looked around for a venue and eventually met in the newly built North Kidlington Primary School.

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However none of the venues worked well, storage (especially of camp equipment) was always a problem, Caretakers were touchy and there was little cohesion between Units.

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When the possibilty arose in the late sixties of buying an area of land in Green Lane from Ben Smith, a local landowner, at a cost of £250.00, the Guides leapt at it, closed the deal and started fund raising. The Green Road Guide Centre was finally opened in September 1973, at a cost of £4,000.

And, we've been on the site ever since, with approximately 250 girls, young women and Leaders meeting there weekly.