For more than eighty years the 1st Sheldon, 144th Birmingham, Scout Group has enabled youngsters in Sheldon to experience the fun and adventure of Scouting. As part of The Scout Association its aim is to promote the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potentials, as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities. The Group caters for Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, covering an age range from 6 to 14 years, and has close links with the Enigma Explorer Unit for young people of 14 to 18 years.There is also the Vanguard Fellowship Scout Active Service Unit for adults.
For many years the Group met in a wooden scout hut adjacent to St Giles Church. This was destroyed by fire in 1990, since when the scouts, parents and friends have raised the necessary funds to erect a new building on the same site, located on Ragley Drive adjacent to St Giles Church and Sheldon Country Park.
Much of the building work was undertaken by volunteers .
The location of the new building, between the Parish Church and the old Rectory (now Bray's Farm) is at the heart of old Sheldon. Land just two miles to the north east was settled by Anglo-Saxons, probably between 800 and 1000 AD, and Sheldon itself was settled in the 12th and 13th centuries. By 1330 the nave and chancel of the present church had been built. The tower was built in 1461 at a cost of forty-two pounds, four shillings and eight pence. (£42-23).
Sheldon's first school adjoined the chancel and was established in 1704 by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge of which Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray, Rector of Sheldon 1690-1730, was a founding member. Sheldon is now a busy suburb on the eastern edge of the City of Birmingham.
Historical References: Discovering Sheldon, Skipp V.H.T., Dept. Extra Mural Studies, The University of Birmingham, England.