Stories to be Remembered
90 Years
LLANISHEN AND LISVANE SCOUT GROUP CELEBRATES ITS 90TH BIRTHDAY !
Sunday 12 December 2021 marks the 90th birthday of the Llanishen and Lisvane Scout Group. The north Cardiff group has around 200 members and is one of the largest and longest running in Wales. It continues to thrive in an era when Scouting is proving more popular than ever amongst young people, helped in part by the inspirational leadership of the Chief Scout, Bear Grylls.
The group itself has its own inspirational leader in Hilary Ashton. Hilary has continued to dedicate a huge part of her life to Scouting and must take great credit for helping north Cardiff to produce several generations of multi-skilled, helpful and community-minded young people. In support of Hilary Ashton there is a talented and enthusiastic group of around 30 volunteers who run the numerous troops of Beavers, Cubs and Scouts and maintain the long-running legacy of the group.
The group’s overarching objective is to promote the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potential, as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities. This is achieved by providing an enjoyable and attractive scheme of progressive training based on the Scout promise and law.
The children in our Group come from surrounding areas in North Cardiff, Llanishen, Lisvane, Thornhilll, Pontprennau and Cyncoed. Scouting was traditionally an activity for boys, but girls have been members of our Group for many years now. Many local residents will have attended our renowned bonfire and fireworks nights which have always been a significant event in Llanishen’s calendar, except for the pandemic-affected recent years.
THE HISTORY OF THE SCOUT GROUP
Llanishen and Lisvane Scout Group was formed in December 1931. At first the Group met in the Vicarage Rooms, which were located in the area of Old Vicarage Close, off Station Road in Llanishen, before the houses there now were built.
The first President of the Group was Leonard Livsey who was the local chemist and St Isan’s Church warden. Mr Livsey was very enthusiastic about Scouting and did a great deal to promote its development in the area. Livsey Hall, our Scout Hall is named in his memory and was built in 1957 on the Court Field in Llanishen.
Fraser Hall, a second building which is used for storage, a workshop and a committee room, was named in memory of John Fraser Noel, who was an active member of the Group during the 1950s. John Noel lived with his family in Coed Glas Road in Llanishen and when a member of the group he was awarded British Scouting’s top medal for bravery for rescuing a boy when on a group expedition in the Scottish Highlands. Tragically John died in Antarctica in 1966 after an accident when working with the British Antarctic Survey.
The building of Livsey and Fraser Halls was the result of a tremendous effort by parents, Leaders and boys, who raised all the money for construction costs and did much of the manual work themselves. Livsey Hall underwent a major refurbishment in 2018 that ensures it can continue to provide a top class facility for its members and also for several other groups from the local community, such as dancers and baby-care groups.
In 2016, the Group expanded into Lisvane Scout Hall, which now comes under the Group’s control. The Hall is small, with a lack of storage. It is used by Beavers, Cubs and Scouts and Treetops nursery, that have had a presence there since the 1970s during term time. The Group are currently raising funds to have Lisvane Hall extended and reconfigured for the benefit of all users. This will be a revival of 1st Lisvane Scout Group that closed in the 1990s.
The importance of the history of the Scout Group and its former members is highlighted every year on Remembrance Sunday when three young Llanishen men who had been Rover Scouts in the group are remembered. Each of them lost their lives while serving in the RAF in the 2nd World War. A memorial plaque and window dedicated to those brave young men exists in the lady chapel of St Isan’s Church in Llanishen village. Their life stories are documented on this website.
The 90th birthday of the Group is being celebrated by its current members and families on Sunday 12 December at the Court Field. A traditional sing-along around a camp fire and barbeque will take place. Local residents should be made aware that it is not a replacement for our regular bonfire nights as the Covid-related restrictions mean that the general public should not attend. Hopefully everyone should be able to come to our centenary celebrations in 2031!
If you would like to support us with a donation, please use our Total Giving page:
https://www.totalgiving.co.uk/charity/llanishen-and-lisvane-scout-group
Main Contacts:
Group Scout Leader: Hilary Ashton: tel 07811 715281, email hilashton@hotmail.com
Chair: Nick Palmer: tel 07733 080290, email nickrhian@sky.com
.
Sunday 12 December 2021 marks the 90th birthday of the Llanishen and Lisvane Scout Group. The north Cardiff group has around 200 members and is one of the largest and longest running in Wales. It continues to thrive in an era when Scouting is proving more popular than ever amongst young people, helped in part by the inspirational leadership of the Chief Scout, Bear Grylls.
The group itself has its own inspirational leader in Hilary Ashton. Hilary has continued to dedicate a huge part of her life to Scouting and must take great credit for helping north Cardiff to produce several generations of multi-skilled, helpful and community-minded young people. In support of Hilary Ashton there is a talented and enthusiastic group of around 30 volunteers who run the numerous troops of Beavers, Cubs and Scouts and maintain the long-running legacy of the group.
The group’s overarching objective is to promote the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potential, as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities. This is achieved by providing an enjoyable and attractive scheme of progressive training based on the Scout promise and law.
The children in our Group come from surrounding areas in North Cardiff, Llanishen, Lisvane, Thornhilll, Pontprennau and Cyncoed. Scouting was traditionally an activity for boys, but girls have been members of our Group for many years now. Many local residents will have attended our renowned bonfire and fireworks nights which have always been a significant event in Llanishen’s calendar, except for the pandemic-affected recent years.
THE HISTORY OF THE SCOUT GROUP
Llanishen and Lisvane Scout Group was formed in December 1931. At first the Group met in the Vicarage Rooms, which were located in the area of Old Vicarage Close, off Station Road in Llanishen, before the houses there now were built.
The first President of the Group was Leonard Livsey who was the local chemist and St Isan’s Church warden. Mr Livsey was very enthusiastic about Scouting and did a great deal to promote its development in the area. Livsey Hall, our Scout Hall is named in his memory and was built in 1957 on the Court Field in Llanishen.
Fraser Hall, a second building which is used for storage, a workshop and a committee room, was named in memory of John Fraser Noel, who was an active member of the Group during the 1950s. John Noel lived with his family in Coed Glas Road in Llanishen and when a member of the group he was awarded British Scouting’s top medal for bravery for rescuing a boy when on a group expedition in the Scottish Highlands. Tragically John died in Antarctica in 1966 after an accident when working with the British Antarctic Survey.
The building of Livsey and Fraser Halls was the result of a tremendous effort by parents, Leaders and boys, who raised all the money for construction costs and did much of the manual work themselves. Livsey Hall underwent a major refurbishment in 2018 that ensures it can continue to provide a top class facility for its members and also for several other groups from the local community, such as dancers and baby-care groups.
In 2016, the Group expanded into Lisvane Scout Hall, which now comes under the Group’s control. The Hall is small, with a lack of storage. It is used by Beavers, Cubs and Scouts and Treetops nursery, that have had a presence there since the 1970s during term time. The Group are currently raising funds to have Lisvane Hall extended and reconfigured for the benefit of all users. This will be a revival of 1st Lisvane Scout Group that closed in the 1990s.
The importance of the history of the Scout Group and its former members is highlighted every year on Remembrance Sunday when three young Llanishen men who had been Rover Scouts in the group are remembered. Each of them lost their lives while serving in the RAF in the 2nd World War. A memorial plaque and window dedicated to those brave young men exists in the lady chapel of St Isan’s Church in Llanishen village. Their life stories are documented on this website.
The 90th birthday of the Group is being celebrated by its current members and families on Sunday 12 December at the Court Field. A traditional sing-along around a camp fire and barbeque will take place. Local residents should be made aware that it is not a replacement for our regular bonfire nights as the Covid-related restrictions mean that the general public should not attend. Hopefully everyone should be able to come to our centenary celebrations in 2031!
If you would like to support us with a donation, please use our Total Giving page:
https://www.totalgiving.co.uk/charity/llanishen-and-lisvane-scout-group
Main Contacts:
Group Scout Leader: Hilary Ashton: tel 07811 715281, email hilashton@hotmail.com
Chair: Nick Palmer: tel 07733 080290, email nickrhian@sky.com
.
John Fraser Noel
Born in 1941 in Whitchurch, Cardiff, he joined our Group in the 1950s and progressed to be a Rover Scout while residing with his parents, Vivian and Marie Noel, in Coed Glas Road.
In 1962 he was given the Gilt Cross, the Scouts’ highest award for bravery, after rescuing a boy on Ben Nevis mountain in Scotland. John was on a camping expedition in the summer of 1961 with some other members of our Scout Group when they encountered a man whose son had fallen down a crevasse. While the other scouts made a stretcher and boiled up some soup, John Noel climbed down 50 feet into the crevasse to reach the boy who was lying in great pain among snow-covered boulders. John subsequently enabled a successful rescue and was rightly hailed as a hero.
John was a very active member of the Scout Group and travelled to Melbourne, Australia, later in 1961 to attend the World Rover Scout Moot (a bit like the World Scout Jamboree). He made lots of friends world-wide and, being an amateur radio enthusiast, he participated in the annual “Jamboree on the Air (JOTA)” where scouts around the world contact each other on short wave radio (this event still takes place and is accompanied by an internet equivalent).
John’s technical and scouting skills, including his experience of mountaineering and caving, helped him gain a role in 1964 as a Radio Officer with the prestigious British Antarctic Survey team. He was based at Stonington Island near the Palmer Peninsula in Antarctica. On the morning of 24 May 1966 John and a colleague, Thomas Allan (aged 26) from Scotland, were due some time off and so decided to take a ten-day sledging trip with two dog teams. Twenty-four hours later they radioed back to base to say they were still moving but that the weather was deteriorating, with strong winds and driving snow. However, nothing was heard from the two men for the next few days and so, after several days of fine weather, a team from the base set out to search for John and his companion. After following their route, a sad sight beheld them. The two young men were lying frozen in the snow, having perished a few days earlier. They were brought back to the base and were buried on a rocky point of Stonington Island, beneath two great piles of stones and commemorative crosses. Two mountains near the area where they died are named in their memory: Mount Noel and Mount Allan.
Back in Llanishen, a memorial service was held at the parish church on 20 June 1966. The service ended appropriately with the hymn “Who Would True Valour See”. The attendees included John Noel’s fiancee, Miss Penelope Jenkins, also of Llanishen and aged 23 at the time. They were due to get married after John’s intended return to Cardiff in October that year. It is also understood that John had a younger brother, George, and an older sister Katrina.
A memorial to John Fraser Noel was also placed at the Dolygaer Adventure Centre, near Merthyr. It is a stone tablet placed alongside the Brecon Mountain Railway next to the Centre, which was originally owned by Llanishen and Lisvane Scout Group. We have camped there many times over the years. Subsequently our meeting and storage building was named “Fraser Hall”, after his middle name. (Fraser was his maternal grandmother’s maiden name.)
In autumn 2016, a scouting friend of John Noel called John Richards, who now lives in Australia, visited Dolygaer to pay his respects and also present the centre with a plaque containing newspaper articles and medal details about John Noel. He has kindly provided our Scout Group with copies of those articles and they are now on display in the entrance way of the main Scout Hall.
An inquest into the deaths of the two young men was overseen by Sir Vivian Fuchs, Chief of the British Antarctic Survey. His report indicated that they had been extremely brave and had done everything by the book. They had dug a cave into ice to shelter themselves and store their kit and food. They had correctly kept the dogs outside and so had to tend to them regularly in the blizzard, to dig them out of the snow. It appeared that during one such visit to the dogs, Tom Allan did not return promptly. Correctly, John did not go to look for him and stayed in his position. If Tom was lost, his only hope was for John to remain at the entrance to their shelter, shouting and shouting in an effort to guide him back safely. He kept calling until he could call no more and must have fallen asleep with exhaustion. He was found frozen, waist deep in snow, still standing at the mouth of the cave. If he had left his post, the entrance to their cave would have immediately filled up. He could have saved himself, but he gave his life for his friend.
Article in Wales Online in June 2017:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/heartbroken-mums-letter-been-found-13152805
Burial place of John Noel and Tom Allan , Stonington Island, Antarctica:
Rover Scouts WW2
Gallery
About Us / Support Us
Scout Group Details: Llanishen and Lisvane Scout Group
Registered Charity no. 524919
Donations gratefully received via our Total Giving page: TotalGiving - Llanishen and Lisvane Scout Group
Aims & activities:
To promote the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potential, as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities by providing an enjoyable and attractive scheme of progressive training based on the Scout promise and law.
Llanishen and Lisvane Scout Group is one of the largest in Wales, with about 200 active members. We have around 30 volunteers who dedicate a large amount of their spare time to providing tremendous recreational and personal development activities to a broad spectrum of young people from age 6 upwards as part of the UK Scouting network.
The Group is based at our three Scout Halls: two purpose-built buildings close together in Llanishen and one in Lisvane, that are owned by the Group and leased long-term on land owned by Cardiff City Council. The halls in Llanishen are Livsey Hall where scouting activities take place and Fraser Hall which is used for equipment storage and meetings. Livsey Hall has recently been upgraded after a huge fundraising effort by the Group and charitable donations although improvements continue being added. Fraser Hall is in poor condition and the intention is to demolish and rebuild it in the future. Lisvane Scout Hall was built 40 years ago and it is now too small for Treetops nursery that use the hall during the day and the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Brownies, in the evenings. The current aim of the Group Executive is to extend and redevelop this hall and a committee has been formed to move this forward.
Registered Charity no. 524919
Donations gratefully received via our Total Giving page: TotalGiving - Llanishen and Lisvane Scout Group
Aims & activities:
To promote the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potential, as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities by providing an enjoyable and attractive scheme of progressive training based on the Scout promise and law.
Llanishen and Lisvane Scout Group is one of the largest in Wales, with about 200 active members. We have around 30 volunteers who dedicate a large amount of their spare time to providing tremendous recreational and personal development activities to a broad spectrum of young people from age 6 upwards as part of the UK Scouting network.
The Group is based at our three Scout Halls: two purpose-built buildings close together in Llanishen and one in Lisvane, that are owned by the Group and leased long-term on land owned by Cardiff City Council. The halls in Llanishen are Livsey Hall where scouting activities take place and Fraser Hall which is used for equipment storage and meetings. Livsey Hall has recently been upgraded after a huge fundraising effort by the Group and charitable donations although improvements continue being added. Fraser Hall is in poor condition and the intention is to demolish and rebuild it in the future. Lisvane Scout Hall was built 40 years ago and it is now too small for Treetops nursery that use the hall during the day and the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Brownies, in the evenings. The current aim of the Group Executive is to extend and redevelop this hall and a committee has been formed to move this forward.
