8th Holborn’s Scout Troop enjoyed a week of sunshine at Kinver in Staffordshire for our summer camp.
The troop last camped at Kinver (4 miles west of Stourbridge) a decade ago, but this visit was the first where we had travelled without a minibus, instead relying on public transport to get around. We had one leader with a car and small trailer to bring the camping gear, but otherwise we went everywhere on foot and by bus.
Kinver Scout Camp is a beautiful place to stay, and the great thing is that all the important amenities (Co-op, butcher, baker, deli, greengrocer and chip shop) are a short walk away in the high street, enabling Scouts to be actively involved in shopping for the meals they cook.
The campsite team is friendly and helpful, and we met many locals who were happy to chat and pleased to offer tips for things to see and do.
On our first full day we walked up to Nanny’s Rock, one of the caves on Kinver Edge where people once lived, and took in the views from the iron age fort at the top of the hill. Returning to camp via the farm shop to pick some strawberries for lunch, we spent the afternoon at the Kinver Miniature Railway before attempting a Treasure Trail around the streets of the village.
Stourbridge is well known as a centre of glass-making and Monday began with a trip to the Red House Glass Cone where we took part in a glass fusing workshop, each creating a ‘summer scene’ design that we were able to collect later in the week after it had been in the kiln.
After a picnic lunch in a local park we made our way to the Crystal Leisure Centre for an afternoon in the pool.
Tuesday was hike day: we split into two groups, with one group taking the bus to Kidderminster, catching a Severn Valley Railway steam train to Arley, then hiking back to camp on an 11-mile route via Highley and Alveley. The other group left Kinver on foot and completed the same circuit in reverse.
On Wednesday we had a local day in and around Kinver, with on-site climbing and zip wire sessions before a delicious lunch with items from the village deli.
The afternoon saw us make the short walk to Kinver Lock where we met our instructors for a kayaking session on the canal with Bear Creek Adventures.
Thursday was another day out, this time 10 miles on the bus to Dudley to visit the Black Country Living Museum where we were immersed in the past of this industrial corner of England, learning about brickmaking, going down a drift mine, attending a 1912-style school lesson and enjoying traditional funfair amusements.
We rounded off the day with a trip to the Dudley Canal and Caverns, an amazing 45-minute boat tour of the limestone mines below Dudley Castle. Two of our Scouts even got the opportunity to try ‘legging’ a boat through the tunnel.
We took Friday at a more leisurely pace, taking the short walk to the Kinver Edge rock houses now run by the National Trust. These were the last caves in England to be used as domestic dwellings, with the last residents remaining till the 1960s.
In the afternoon we walked to the nearby Kinver Edge Farm where their 10-acre maize maze had just opened for the season.
Kinver is a lovely village and is ideally located just on the cusp of the West Midlands conurbation, with miles of picturesque countryside to the west and all the attractions of the Black Country to the east.