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Gradbach history... The Gradbach story started when Mr W
Percival Williams, the late President of the Buxton Scout Association died in
1949 and left a legacy to form a nucleus of a fund for the provision of a
memorial to Peter Watson.
 Peter
was a local scout and an active member of the 1st Buxton Scout Group. At the age
of twelve Peter contracted a terminal illness that lead to many months of pain
and suffering. Despite the illness Peter showed great cheerfulness and courage,
and up to the time of his death shortly before his 13th Birthday, carried on
with lessons and continued to study scouting as he lay in bed. Peter was
posthumously awarded, by the Chief Scout, The Cornwell Badge which is the
Scout's Victoria Cross, 'For pre-eminently high character and devotion to duty;
his great courage and endurance of pain and suffering through a long and severe
illness'.
A picture and tribute to Peter Watson
can be seen on display in the Camp Providore.
The local Scout Committee decided that
a camp site and training ground would be the ideal memorial. They looked for a
suitable site and ultimately found that the Harpur and Crewe North Staffordshire
Estate was being sold in lots by auction. Members of the Committee and some
Scouters decided that the Gradbach Old Hall Farm and land of 23 acres together
with a plantation of 25 acres would be ideal. Enquiries were made and it was
decided that about £800 would be required to purchase the lot if there were no
other bidders. Fortunately there were no other bidders and Gradbach became the
property of the Buxton Scouts.
At this time the farmhouse was lived in
by an elderly farmer, Mr Downs and his wife, so the scouts and many helpers
began to re-condition completely the old barn which for many years had been used
as a cowshed and a general storage place, and was in a terrible state of repair.
The barn had been thoroughly cleaned
out and re-construction work started, when in November 1952, the roof was blown
off in a whirlwind, ruining months of hard work. To save the building it was
decided to have it be re-roofed by a local builder. Spring 1953 saw the work
start again and a kitchen range was installed, a gift from the builder who
repaired the roof. A stone fireplace was built in the other downstairs room and
a floor was put in for an upstairs room. A sink was installed and many other
jobs such as fitting new windows, gutters, pathways etc were completed and
slowly a dirty, derelict place assumed a different appearance.
Whilst all this was being done the boys
made a camp fire arena, erected a flag pole and cleared camp sites and shifted
hundreds of barrows loads of rubbish which was dumped in holes and buried.
In May 1954 the site was officially
opened by the Duke of Devonshire who fittingly handed a key for the barn to
Peter Watson's mother.
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