1900s-1945
Scouting was a lively part of village life in Leigh during the 1930s, and the troop owed its existence to two dedicated organisers. South View on the Green was home to Mr Herbert Russell, while Miss Daisy Walton lived at Great Barnetts — between them the two kept the Leigh Scouts running and thriving through the decade.
Each summer the scouts headed away for their annual camp at Studland Bay in Dorset, and on occasion they were joined by a few boys from the Tudeley and Capel troop. Maurice Martin could still recall the 1939 camp vividly many years later, for it took place at a remarkable moment in history: war had just been declared. The journey home by train was an uneasy one, with the carriage blinds pulled down so that the boys would not become an enemy target.
Back in the village, the scouts entertained Leigh with their own version of a theatrical tradition. They had travelled to Maidstone to see the Gang Show, the national production organised by Ralph Reader, in which young people sang and performed sketches. Mr Russell and Miss Walton took that formula and applied it to Leigh, staging Gang Shows of their own in the Large Village Hall every year from the mid-1930s onwards.
The Village Hall stage was set up at the Legion Hall end and was fitted with footlights, behind which hung curtains of a rather old green. These were faithfully looked after by Miss Mills, who for many years also ran the Sunday School.
The shows themselves were full of invention. Each performance opened with the scouts lined up in a row, singing. One memorable sketch had six boys standing beneath a large blanket to represent a motor bus. An older scout came on carrying a starting handle, and the comedy unfolded from there: the engine refused to start, then exploded, and a back tyre punctured so that the whole bus sagged. When the repair was made, a second explosion and a second puncture followed, much to the delight of the audience.
The music was guided by Miss Betty Crawford, who led the songs. Among the performers were Roy Brooker, Harry Hitchcock and Maurice Martin, along with Dick Wood, whose fine singing voice was remembered long afterwards. Another familiar face was Spooks Lambert, who lived at The Square.
The Gang Shows became a fixture of village entertainment, and the stage in the Village Hall continued to be used well after the War had ended. For a generation of Leigh scouts and their audiences, those evenings of songs and sketches remained among the happiest memories of the 1930s.