VENTURE ROOM

VENTURE HALL RENOVATION - SUMMER 1999

PHOTOS AND WORDS BY THE VENTURE SCOUTS

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THE ROWSWELL HALL

In the summer of 1999 the RVU, in particular Dave Gardner and James Logan, decided that the much talked about refurbishment should begin. This was in the weeks after the Gower Peninsula summer camp of 1999.

This page, however, is dedicated to the last real venture scout meeting held in the old venture room which, was the meeting before the summer camp of 1999. The meeting's agenda was decided by Dave who brought up four bottles from his holiday in Spain.

These photos show the old venture room in all it's glory. The classic pink walls and black trim interupted only by the odd "no road markings" sign.

JAMES REMOVES HARD BOARD

THE WALL IS ALMOST GONE

STARTING ON NEW WALLS

After everyone returned from summer camp attentions were turned to the venture hall. The RVU were adament that work should begin as Dave and James were free all summer. For a project of this size it is important that the group executive committee approve the project and allocate funds. Certain members of the commitee were against the idea and most of them didn't know about it at all. The RVU were unfazed by this and began the work by removing the shelves and other fittings followed swiftly by the removal of a main wall.

One major problem the RVU had was a distinct lack of any funds. Indeed the group didn't really have any money to spend on a major renovation of the venture hall. One way the RVU saw of getting round this was to remove a wall or two without asking anyone and then hopefully money would be forthcoming to finish the job. Another problem was that the guides hadn't yet moved their kit out of the old store in the venture room and into the new store. The RVU decided that the best course of action here would be to remove the cupboard that their kit was in and then hopefully this would prompt some action. After the first real day of work the RVU left a trail of mass devastation which they attempted to disguise by sweaping the floor.

The plan for the new room would increase the size of the venture room considerably. The old guide and venture store rooms would be removed and the ventures would use the old scout store as their store. The wall that divided the scout and venture stores was relocated about one metre higher than previously. This was to allow the pool table to fit into the space where the venture store used to be. The only other plan was to build a trophy cabinet and cleaning cupboard near the door. Facing into the venture room would be a trophy cabinet at head height, and facing into the coridoor would be a cleaning cupboard which was underneath the trophy cabinet.

THE OLD ROOM HOW IT WAS

THE NEW PLAN

WHERE IS THE WALL?

At this early stage the RVU had not really sought any permission from anyone. The Venture leader Andy Jones and the Quartermaster Tony Jones had given the go ahead, but the likes of David Wellar (The group and Hall secretary) had not been consulted for fear of saying no. By the time we had removed the old guide store the cat was well and trully out of the bag and in amoungst the pigeons. We were informed that there was no money for this project and that it couldn't go ahead to which we pointed out that it was a little late for that. By now everyone realised that this project was happening.

Afte removing the guide store, the guides eventually moved their kit into the new store we had built them four summers before. I say they moved their kit, what really happened was the RVU and Scout Leaders built them some shelves and moved their kit for them. With the kit out of the way it was clear that the floor where the guide store was would need to be raised to meet the floor in the rest of the venture room.

RAISING THE FLOOR

The plans for the venture room started off quite reasonable. A tin of paint applied liberally should last us for a few years. As more people got involved so the plans grew. It was decided that whilst we were redecorating the hall we should put some insulation into the walls. Up until then the venture room was a legendary cold place during the winter months. We were hoping to take down the plaster board, stick some insulation in and then put back the old plasterboard. This would be very cheap as we had some insulation left over from the building of the new hall. However, after removing a few pieces of plasterboard there was a swift realisation that new plasterboard would be needed as the old stuff had been trashed by us. Plasterboard is fragile stuff, and removing the plasterboard sheets in one piece was a tricky and time consuming business. It didn't take long for the RVU to realise that it was a lot easier to remove the plasterboard using a crow bar than by trying to remove each nail individually.

Right: Andy is investigating the wall where the cleaning cupboard was to be put in.
James reverts to the best plasterboard removal weapon - the crow bar.

GOOD DECORATOR - BAD DECORATOR

There was one member of the RVU who offered his services for a few days before he started work in Loughbrough. Until now, work had been progressing at a tremendous pace. At weekends leaders and RVU members who were busy during the week would descend on the hall. However, this one chap had a knack of reverting to the "new store" work ethic; turn up around midday, and work for five minutes before declaring that it was lunchtime, spend at least two hours on lunch, if not more, and then go home as it was getting late. When lunch takes the whole day to prepare you know that not enough work is getting done.

The menu includes roast chicken, lightly dressed mixed leaf salad, stuffed avacado and prawns.

Left & below: Dave and Ross do lunch in style.

LUNCH

The trophy cabinet was the first time the RVU turned their hand from demolishion to construction in the venture hall refurbishment. A wooden frame was built using the timbers removed from the guide store wall. A section of the wooden flooring that covered the venture room was cut out to allow the frame to bebolted to the slab. The bottom part was to be a cleaners cupboard that would have a door facing onto the coridoor and the top part would be a trophy cabinet facing into the venture hall. The trophy cabinet was essential as the RVU were dab hands at collecting silverware.

Left: Ross and Dave inside the newly built cleaning cupboard.

Below left: Ross and Dave preparing timbers for the cleaning cupboard.

Below right: Ross and Jon boogie in the main hall after a hard days building.

BOOGIE

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