The Church Lads and Church Girls Brigade

Click on for Brigade diary of events.

Email
News and Events

To extend the Kingdom of Christ among lads and girls and to encourage faithful membership of the Church of  England.


Look at St Martin's, Castleton Company

The Church Lads Brigade was formed at St. Andrews Church, Fulham, in 1891.  From this one Company started by Walter Mallock Gee, the then secretary of the Church of England Temperance Society, the organization grew rapidly.  With cornerstones of the Brigades work being strong Christian principles and healthy physical activity, the numbers grew to having up to 8,000 on parade at the Royal Review of 1908.  Meanwhile the Rev. Thomas Milner at a Kilburn Parish Church opened the first company for girls in 1901. Originally they were known as the Church Nursing and Ambulance Brigade for Young Women and Girls, until 1923 when they became an Incorporated Society known as the Church Girls Brigade.  A major reorganization in 1936 freed them from all military meaning and intention.  The Brigades continued their work through the Second World War and after.    The most recent change organizationally was in 1978 when the C.L.B. and C.G.B amalgamated to form the Church Lads and Church Girls Brigade - one organization working together.

St. Martin's, Castleton Company

Offers a varied programme of fun, challenge and adventure in a Christian Environment

The companies at St. Martin's Castleton were started for the Lads in 1908, and for the Girls in 1945, and continues at a good strength.  Each Company is part of the Parish's outreach to children and young people by offering a wide range of activities and a badge scheme for each age group to help build a progressive programme.  The church is responsible for appointing the leaders who must be communicant members of the church.  The Brigade offers a full and varied ongoing programme of training and support for leaders. The Brigade operates in four age groups:
 

Activities

The activities available within the Brigade are boundless, starting with simple activities, games,
craft, nature study, Christian knowledge, etc., with the younger sections.
For the JTC. the content expands with Silver and Gold levels of achievement.
For the Senior Corps the levels of difficulty break, Bronze, Silver and Gold and into three sections of achievement.  Included in this part is the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, and today virtually every activity listed in the award handbook can be found somewhere in the Brigade, and there are many more besides.  The brigade is justly proud that it was the first licensed as its own operating authority in 1956.

Music, Sport and the Great Outdoors

At our company level, besides our normal programme we also have other activities.  our drum, bugle and brass band which we play on company parades, processions of witness, (both ours and others) carnivals and competitions.  We hold an annual camp with numbers of from 30 up to 50 (ish) attending for which we have all our own equipment and gear, our boast being that all we need is a field with a tap in it.  We sleep under canvas for a week providing a valuable experience for children in living away from home a little nearer to nature with a good programme offering a little work and a lot of fun, some of it even educational.  Weekends away and weeks camps are also available at battalion and regimental levels.  We have various competitions at various levels: swimming, athletics, netball, 5 a side football, volleyball and cross country, from company through to national levels.  We continue to have notable successes in these fields.
 Back to Choices

Support

We have a newly extended Training Centre at our headquarters at Wath Upon Dearne in South Yorkshire.  Accommodating 40+ overnight, it is most suitable for Junior leaders and officers training courses, conferences, council meetings and committee meeting, choir practices and spring adventure week and so on.  At St Martin's  we have a very active small group of people called the Parents Committee who are devoted to raising money for the children in this company for equipment, instruments, uniforms, expenses, etc.  They organize events, go to car boot sales, have stalls at Spring, Summer, Autumn and Christmas fairs, including our own , attend boat and car rallies and many other efforts.  They meet in our church hall on the first Wednesday of every month at 8.00 p.m.  Anyone who would be interested in helping them would be most welcome and I am sure, find it both rewarding and fun, you don't even need to be connected to the Brigade.

Taking Part

The meeting times for the various sections are as follow:
 

If anyone has an interest, or wants to know any more about any of this, whether to join or just for information, please speak to any of us.  We like the Brigade and we are only too pleased to be able to talk about it.

Send email to: StMartinsCastletonLancs@StMartinsCastletonLancs.fsnet.co.uk