Scoutrageous! Pictures show what boys got up to before safety era took hold

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

• Snaps taken between 1930s and 1950s, show how much fun scouts had
• They were unearthed by the 3rd Altrincham Scouts group
• Pictures seem a world away from the sanitised fun had by today's scouts

They certainly knew how to have fun in the old days.
Tied up with ropes and a mish-mash of planks, a grinning scout dangles precariously off the ground as his companions heave him up the wall.
In another shot, a scout perches on top of an alarmingly rickety tower, cobbled together from wooden poles, while a boy clambers his way up.

These photographs, taken between the 1930s and 1950s, shows scouts certainly knew how to have fun in the old days

In another shot, a scout perches on top of an alarmingly rickety tower, cobbled together from wooden poles, while a boy clambers his way up

The nostalgic snaps are a world away from today's 'cotton wool' generation who are cosseted by parents and coddled by safety concerns

It’s enough to give the average health and safety officer a seizure. But this is the sort of fun that scouts used to get up to in the days when a spirit of adventure was unfettered by red tape.
 The photographs, taken between the 1930s and 1950s, were unearthed to mark the centenary celebrations of a scout group in Altrincham, Cheshire, and are a world away from today’s ‘cotton wool’ generation who are cosseted by parents and coddled by safety concerns.

There was nothing to hold back the 3rd Altrincham Scouts group, based at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, when it was founded 100 years ago today.

A young scout dangles from an improvised rope bridge, which looks a lot like a plank attached to some lengths of rope

A young man with a pretend leg injury is hauled up a school building in a makeshift splint. While it certainly looks fun, it probably would not pass current health and safety legislation

Assistant district commissioner George Sharp, 73, who has been involved with the group for 60 years, admitted times had changed but insisted Scouting today remained just as fun as in 1913.
‘The leaders of old had fewer restrictions imposed on them with health and safety,’ he said. ‘We’ve learned to manage the risks, but it’s fair to say we are more safety-conscious than we used to be. However, that doesn’t stop us offering adventurous activities.’
He said today’s children often needed encouragement to enjoy the delights of outdoor life and camping.

Geoffrey William Sutcliffe who documented the scout troop in photographs. Known as Little Squirrel, he died in 2004

‘Youngsters these days tend to have less patience than we did and it is a bit of a culture shock for some to be introduced to a tea towel when they have never known life without a dishwasher, but they soon get into the swing of things.’
A Scout Association spokesman said the shot of the boy being rescued was not necessarily relegated to the past.
He added: ‘These casualty rescue skills are still practised today, if not necessarily from the side of a building.’