"Spirit Flame" To Arrive In Dover To Mark Centenary Of Scouting Movement

The "Spirit Flame" - an Olympic-style torch which marks the centenary of the Scouting movement - is due to arrive in Dover on Saturday 28 July at 3pm.

It was lit on 22 February, the anniversary of Baden-Powell's birth, at the place where he was buried in Nyeri, Kenya and it has been carried by various means through Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Crete, Greece, Italy, France and Belgium to the UK.

A team of cycling Scouts from Willesborough, Ashford, will meet the flame in Dover and carry it to Folkestone where there will be a civic reception to welcome the flame to Britain. Complete with Bells and Whistles this will take place between 5 and 6 pm on the front from the Harbour to the Coastal Park. Other teams of Scouts and Guides will take it through to Hythe and on the canal it will travel by canoe.

After an early start on Sunday Morning it will travel on to Newchurch, Bilsington, Ruckinge, Hamstreet and the Rare Breeds Farm at Woodchurch before reaching Tenterden Town Station at 11.30am. The flame travels by vintage train for the last 10 miles before being passed on to the young folk of Sussex at Bodiam Castle for transportation on the next leg of the journey to Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset.

The flame is symbolic of the Scout & Guide Spirit that permeates both movements and it is timed to arrive just 100 years after the start of Baden-Powell's first experimental camp on Brownsea Island which was the start of the Scout Movement in 1907.

After Brownsea Island the flame goes on to the World Scout Jamboree at Hylands Park, Chelmsford, Essex.