Heywood ESU

07/06/2026

⚠️ Birthday alert ⚠️

The fabulous Holly has finally turned 18 and wow it feels like she's been in our unit forever!

Being the leaders kid has meant Holly has been cajoled and lasso'd to pretty much every event over the last 14 years and as she is such a superstar she never complained once.

Having been an "official" member for the past 4 years Holly has visited campsites the length and breadth of the country, Ashworth Valley Scout CampSite is her second home, Gladstonbury was her investiture camp and her most favourite Scouting place in the world is Kandersteg International Scout Centre which she has visited 3 times (4th will the 2027 😃)

The Monopoly Run Manchester has been a highlight of her time with HESU and she proudly was awarded The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Silver award.

Thank you for being an amazing Scout Holly! Good luck with university and don't forget to come back when you can to say hi.

Fun fact: We believe Holly to be the last UK Scout to have taken part in knife throwing before it was banned in 2015 (she was a beaver but REALLY wanted to have a go 🤣)

24/05/2026

Heywood ESU have spent the weekend basking in the beautiful sunny weather where we have built pioneering structures, flew planes (paper ones obviously 🤣) shot crossbows, threw tomahawks, hiked through the gorgeous valley, ate like royalty and had an absolutely cracking weekend camp.
Thank you to all the volunteer leaders for giving up their time.

We are SOOOOO lucky to have Ashworth Valley Scout CampSite literally on our doorstep. Hopefully this weekends sun was not the only bit we get this year and we will be back to enjoy this beautiful campsite even more over the season.

04/05/2026

02/05/2026

BIRTHDAY ALERT!

Happy birthday to Charlotte 🥳

Charlotte joined us just a few years ago and has been an ever present part of HESU ever since, tracking all the way from Cheshire for our Thursday night meetings has not stopped her and she has tackled pretty much every activity and event we have put on since 2024!

Charlotte was asked what her highlights have been during her time in HESU, was it hiking across the beautiful Dovestones area, 2 Monopoly Run Manchester events, having a bash at archery up in Ashworth Valley, camping in all weathers and even riding a dinosaur across the Trafford plains?
Her answer (like many before) was simply Kandersteg International Scout Centre. Charlotte attended our 2025 trip to Switzerland and thankfully she will be coming along as a Scouts Network member on our 2027 Summer adventure to Rome, Geneva and Kandersteg combined!

Have a great birthday and we cant wait for you to come back and see us soon.

19/04/2026

HESU have had a great day today celebrating everything that is great about Scouting in Rochdale Borough.

The Explorers and the rest of the district met at Springfield park for our annual St George's day parade where we learnt all about the bravery of Saint George, paraded around the park with our flags flying proudly and we finished it all off with some fun activities included crate stacking.

An excellent event indeed.

03/04/2026

This week at Explorers we had the pleasure of welcoming our very own Dungeon Masters: Matt, Freya, Isabel who came along and taught the Explorers how to play the fantastic game that is Dungeons and Dragons!

All the Explorers were treated to their very own set of dice and their own hand designed playing figure.

Thanks guys for coming along, it was an epic session.

*The picture is of three of our leaders' very own characters, handpainted by one of the Explorers.

27/03/2026

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!!

And another HESU member has hit the magic 18 and aged out of our little Scouting family.

Sarah came to us from a different Explorer unit as she heard about all the amazing adventures we had to offer and these fitted her Scouting better so along she came one Thursday evening and stayed 😃

Sarah has attended all our camps and events over the past 3.5 years including Gladstonbury 2024, to Kandersteg Switzerland 2025 ❄️ Ashworth Valley Scout CampSite countless times, smashing through her Silver Duke of Edinburgh's Award, she has taken part in 3 years worth of Monopoly Run Manchester and was on the winning team for the 2024 & 2026 ! PHEWWWWW.

When asked what her highlights of her time with us are she very quickly said visiting Kandersteg International Scout Centre and also the fun time she had at Gladstonbury camp in Wales.

We are SO SO proud of Sarah and everything she has accomplished during her time with Heywood ESU, we have watched her grow into such an amazing confident young adult and we are sorry to see her leave.

I'm sure we will see you soon Sarah so have a great 18th.