We do modern things for modern girls and that’s what keeps them interested.
Hilary
I have been involved in Girlguiding since I was a girl. Had so much fun, forgot to leave so that means I’ve been here involved in Guiding in North Tyneside for over 50 years. Within North Tyneside I have been an advisor for various things such as the outdoors and international and an Assistant County Commissioner and probably most importantly I think, throughout that time I have been working with girls as a Ranger Leader.
Jean
I became involved in Guiding in the mid 1980s just as a helper and then I took over a unit for a while. I stopped being a Guider, it must have been in the 90s and then for about 4 years in the early 90s I was asked to be arts advisor for North Tyneside and I used to hold craft sessions in Trefoil House. I’m now one of the Trefoil Guild Members.
Hilary
I think focussing in on the main things what hasn’t changed is the ethos of Guiding is still the same. It’s still a safe place for girls and young women. It’s a single sex organisation that’s proud to be that because that’s the way we feel is the best for people to develop. As an aside, I feel very sorry in scouting, the matching half, there is nowhere similar for boys, there’s not a safe boy only space they have to have girls there, we have maintained that. So, the ethos of Guiding, the promise, the law, the fact that we are for girls and young women, helping develop their independence and their skills and their interests and our impact actually nationally is massive. If you get a group of women in a room and ask them to put their hand up who was in the Brownies or the Guides a massive number, a huge percentage will have had some impact. So as far as I’m concerned if you only did a year and it helped them to become confident to do something, that’s worth it, you don’t have to be as extreme as me and do it for years and years.
But at the same time, I wouldn’t been who I am today, and I wouldn’t have had the career I’ve had if it hadn’t been for the leaders in the 70s and 60s you know helping me to develop. So, I think there’s those kinds of things that are hidden in a sense because the obvious things that are changed are you know, you’ll see on the pictures at the opening how very formal the uniform was. When I was first a leader, I went out to my Guide meeting smart as anything in a suit and shirt and a little tie on, a hat you know, stupid really to do daft games. But we were smart, and the girls were smart we did inspections of their uniform. Now superficially you would look at people now and it’s very much more relaxed, our uniform options are more relaxed. We’ve got hoodies, we’ve got polo shirts. There is a smart option, I can wheel out a suit if I have to, but you know, for regular girl meetings then we are dressed appropriately and that’s what the public see I think and they might say, “Oh, they’re not as smart as they used to be”. No, we’re not but actually we’re practical. So, I think the way we look is something that’s changed. I’m sure if we were to sit down and list what we did and what we do there’s obviously differences because it’s 2023 and quite rightly we do modern things for modern girls and that’s what keeps them interested.
So, if you look at the programme handbooks for the 70s and 80s and what’s in there, Baden Powell would have recognised all that. If you look now, there’s still, all the traditional stuff is there, we value all that traditional stuff which people would see as like fire lighting and camping and I don’t know, rubbing two sticks together to make fire, but on top of that we do a whole load of other stuff which is much more to do with IT, to do with wellbeing, mental health issues, political things. So, I think we’ve moved really well with the times. Not everybody will agree with me on this and some of my generation might be seen to be the people that find that hardest, I’m not one of those people, because I think you’ve got to be appropriate to the time you live in. So, there is a huge difference there visually in what we do but you know at the end what it produces is girls who are confident, can speak out, mindful of their environment and all the things that you would like the girls and women of today to be really aware of.
If I took you into the shop downstairs and I show you the badges you’d be gobsmacked really because they have names and I’m trying to think of some now. Fortunately, we’ve got the badge queen here, I’m a well-known badge hater. But there’s things like, names like Mixology.
Viki
Guides have Mixology. We’ve got an Natural Remedies now, I’ve just had a Guide do a Vlogging badge for a Gold Award, Rangers have Voting.
Hilary
We have Event Planning as well don’t we.
Viki
Event Planning. We have, we still have Cooking but it’s a lot more about healthy menus and how to budget, like to prep them more for Uni and living by themselves for the first time.
Hilary
And we still have camping and outdoor badges, I think we’ve been very clever at blending the old and the new. Girls do a lot of Interest badges and then they do Skill Builder badges, so we do the programmes based on unit meeting activities. I don’t think we’ll ever give up on badges. And you will remember of course, when you were a Brownie you made a promise, the promise badge. They all still make a promise and remake it when they become a Guide, so the promise badge is still key. Our branding’s had a revamp this year actually again, just keeping it moving with the times.
They tried to get rid of a lot of arts and crafts but it doesn’t work because actually when it comes down to it there’s a lot of leaders have a lot of skills and love doing arts and crafts and actually there’s nothing makes the girls in the unit I work with happier than an evening of crafting and I mean these are bright intellectually able girls, they’re going to university, they’re doing their GCSEs and A Levels but they love doing crafts. So, I don’t think we should deny that. It’s by demand, on demand.
Viki
If the girls want to do it, we’ll do it. We have been talking about the fact our uniforms are due to change again in 2026 with the new branding, Guiding uniforms is actually a great social look at women’s clothing for the past 110 years. Because if you look at what we had to wear to be acceptable in 1910 when we started to what we are now wearing it’s a very practical change.
Hilary
Yes, you can follow my Guiding career by the different uniforms I’m wearing. I’ve got a drawer full of uniforms of various vintage and some of it’s in this archive material here as well. We bring the girls in sometimes to have dressy-up sessions with old uniforms on. You should just go to 1970-1980 and the uniform we were wearing then. In 1990 we had a new uniform designed by Jeff Banks and that was a really, I mean goodness people were shocked. That was a really big step because I can see it now with the pale blue jumper there that your leaders would have in the Brownies probably with the white stripe round and that’s when polo shirts came in and we, goodness me, we were so dressed up weren’t we, before that. I was going out to Guides in my kind of you know, smart court shoes and a skirt suit.
Viki
We had the Guides dress up on holiday and we were showing them a camp dress that someone brought from their private collection and I was explaining that you’d wear this for Guides and Rangers because it was the same blue but your mam would maybe buy it when it was down here when you were 10 and you’d wear it until you were 18 and it was up here.
Hilary
That was true of Brownie uniforms wasn’t it, by the time Guides got to 10 and 11 they usually had to wear something under their dress because it had become a long top.
Viki
We see that now even with the Guide uniform, you get them at 10 and it’s down here by the time they’re ready for Rangers they are t-shirts.
Hilary
Brownie uniform from 1980s
One of the good things about Brownies is that the Brownie uniform has basically been brown. So, you can put a Brownie in the street or in a shopping mall, most people I would venture to suggest could spot a Brownie. Most people actually can spot a Rainbow now because they’re lovely in their little cute red track suits and things. The Guide uniform has so radically changed, and I don’t think it’s been communicated as strongly. It doesn’t have as strong an image as Scouting so unless people have got a Guide in the family, they possibly don’t recognise it. By the time you get to working with the Ranger age, you would never know. Now the length of time it seems between when we change from one thing to another has collapsed a bit but the Brownie branding you know people still recognise a Brownie in the street.
Viki
You have the people who recognise them as the brown dress ones or the yellow top people, that’s very distinctive.
Hilary, Jean and Viki were interviewed as part of the North Tyneside Heritage Action Zone Project.