Potted History Page

Who are these folk all dressed in green?

The Woodcraft Folk was started in 1925 in South London.  The first group was called the Wayfarers Fellowship and it was so successful that by the end of that year other groups had formed nearby.

It was started by a group of young people led by Leslie Paul, who was then 19 years old.  He had been in the Scouts, but wanted to be in a group that did more camping, wasn’t so much like the army, and had girls and boys together.

In the years after the First World War, many people had turned away from fighting and war.  There were also many poor and working class children who needed the chance to get away from the smoke and the grime of the big cities, and experience free healthy living in the countryside, even for a short time.

That was why the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society helped to set up the first groups, and why the principle of co-operation became important in the way the Folk was run.

Although the first Woodcraft Folk had left the Scouts, they still wanted to keep some of their ideas – especially the idea of Woodcraft.

This was the word invented by Ernest Seton Thompson to describe the way the Native Americans lived, and meant the skills involved in living in the open air, close to nature. 

The Scouts used this word, and had a Scout Commissioner for Camping and Woodcraft.  This man was called John Hargrave.

The idea of Woodcraft was that a group of people would camp together, sharing the work and helping each other, sharing the food and the fun.  They hoped that eventually everyone would live together like this all the time. 

In those days, schools were very different, children had to do as they were told, ‘be seen and not heard’, and girls and boys were separated.  The Woodcraft Folk believed that learning should be fun, and that the children should have a say in deciding what went on.  Women and men, girls and boys, were all involved in an equal way.

During the Second World War, people in The Woodcraft Folk had different ideas – some believed that you should never fight or hurt any one, and they were called conscientious objectors.  Some were able to work in hospitals, others were put in prison.  Others believed that you had to fight racism and fascism, and they became soldiers or helped the war effort in other ways.

After the Second World War, there were groups all over Britain, but they were small and scattered.  As time went by, they became bigger and involved in new activities.

In the 1950s, The Woodcraft Folk became involved in the Peace Movement and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. 

In the 1960s, many Folk groups gave support to the people of Vietnam through medical and other aid.

In the 1970s and 1980s, The Woodcraft Folk grew bigger as more people became involved in the peace movement and in feminism and in the ecology (‘green’, or environmental) movement. 

Through the 1990s and into the new millennium, The Woodcraft Folk are still growing, and are working to involve more Black children and grown ups, and to carry on our international links.