Girl Guides face their greatest fundraising challenge

The house was built in 1978 with donations of money, materials and labour from parents and friends, but last year the building was showing its age and a revamp project was launched.

A grant of 50,000 has been promised to Guide leaders by the Big Lottery Fund – but only if they can find the rest of the scheme's massive 190,000 budget by a June deadline.

It was hoped to have the house completed this year to mark the 100th anniversary of girl guiding, but without a significant cash injection soon the project looks in serious jeopardy.

Pat Padgett, who is chairman of the committee which looks after the house in Hesley Wood, between Rotherham and Sheffield, said at present the project is around 80,000 short.

Unless that cash is found in the next five months, the lottery funding could be withdrawn, meaning that work on the modernisation would have to be put on ice for the foreseeable future.

Mrs Padgett said Guides had already raised around 60,000 for the scheme and would be heartbroken if all their efforts came to nothing after donations dried up in recent months.

She added: "If we could just get the cash together we don't stand to lose anything, but we are finding it really difficult to raise money and could have to give up some of the lottery money.

"More than 1,000 young people a year use the house, which is in a lovely setting, but it is just not up to modern standards. The toilets and showers are not acceptable in 2010.

"The bedrooms are cramped and the leaders' rooms are like little cupboards. We need to make the whole house much more accessible for everybody, including those with disabilities."

Mrs Padgett, a former county commissioner for Girl Guiding South Yorkshire, said she had been taking members of her group, 5th Barnsley, to the house for more than 30 years.

Aspirations for the house include refurbished bedrooms and bathrooms, and a new kitchen to replace the one which exists, which is too small to teach girls how to cook healthy meals.

At present, the house only has room for 22 children and four adults, and often Guide units are bigger than that, meaning some members have to be left out of staying at the house.

Schools have used the building for camps in the past, and have expressed an interest in doing so again, but have told Guide leaders that it is not up to standard for pupils at the moment.

Current county commissioner Alison Lumby said there would be thousands of Yorkshire women with fond memories of camps at Hesley Wood, and urged them to help out if they could.

She added: "We want to be able to offer girls somewhere safe so they can enjoy their independence, healthy lifestyles and outdoor activities that would not be open to them otherwise.

"A lot of work has gone into the project already, so it would be a real shame if we couldn't get enough money together to make the whole thing into a reality for our members and others.

"We would like to be able to open the house up to all kinds of groups, not just Guides and Brownies, but it hasn't been updated for so many years, and desperately needs the work doing.

"There must be lots of former South Yorkshire Guides out there who remember their time at Hesley Wood, and we hope they will help us give other girls chance to enjoy the same experiences."

n Anybody who can help should send donations, however small, to Pat Padgett, 26 Brunswick Close, Smithies, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S71 1NQ.

HOW THE GIRL GUIDES BEGAN

The Girl Guides were initially set up in 1910, a few months after a group of girls "gatecrashed" the first Boy Scout rally at London's Crystal Palace in 1909, and asked boy scout founder Robert Baden-Powell to offer "something for girls too".

They were first led by Robert Baden-Powell's sister Agnes, and in 1918 his wife, Olave Baden-Powell, became the first chief guide. The Queen and Princess Margaret were both members.

A junior section, which came to be known as the Brownies, was formed in 1915, and during the First World War, girl guides acted as couriers of confidential information for Marconi Wireless Telegraph Ltd.

By the time of the Second World War, guide units had been set up all over the country and the world.