by Roy Darke
The Scout Hall on Marston Road, New Marston, was erected in the 1913 funded by an endowment made from Emily Lydia Peto. A plaque in the Hall commemorates Emily’s gift to the City of Oxford Boy Scouts Association (dated 1932).
The Hall sits at the junction of Marston Road and William Street, opposite the local public house (formerly the Somerset Arms, now called the ‘Up In Arms’ because of the community effort to save it from permanent closure). Together with the corner shop on the other side of the William Street/Marston Road junction the ensemble (Scout Hall, pub and shop) creates a small ‘community hub’ within New Marston.
The Scout Hall is a modest Arts and Crafts building. The building was designed by the architectural practice of Frank E. Whiting and W. S. Peto (based in London – probably set up in 1910). Walter Samuel was Emily Peto’s nephew. They came from a distinguished family that grew to prominence in the Victorian era. Various members of Peto family appear in peerage records and/or have Wikipedia entries. A family patriarch, Samuel Morton Peto, was Emily’s father and Walter’s grandfather. With a partner Peto created a large construction/civil engineering business that built, inter alia, Nelson’s Column, the Houses of Parliament and London’s brick sewers as well as much Victorian railway infrastructure. A bust of Morton Peto can be seen in Norwich railway station.
Emily was daughter to Morton Peto. She funded construction of the Scout Hall, presumably from the substantial Peto family inheritance (although her father was declared bankrupt in 1868 and died in obscurity). Emily was Scout Mistress of the 9th Oxford (New Marston) troop in 1913 and used in the newly built Hall for many following years. She lived in St Cross Street, Oxford. Emily never married.
The Peto family were significant figures within the Arts and Crafts movement. Morton’s son, Harold, was an architect who went into practice with (Sir) Ernest George to create a successful Victorian firm building mainly large town houses in London. Locally, Peto and George’s design talent can be seen in the Town Hall at Moreton-in-the Marsh. Harold was also known as a creator of famous Arts and Crafts gardens.
Sadly, Walter Samuel Peto was killed in a bizarre accident in the Balkans when serving in the Royal Engineers in December 1917.
The design and layout of the Scout Hall
Jonathan Yates, a former Scout Leader says in his notes on the Hall:
“The Hall is still very much as shown in the original plans; the rifle range has been walled across to make a meeting room, and additional store rooms, a kitchen and toilets have been built. The outside railings shown in the early photograph have gone, presumably removed during the second world war, and the small bell… (housing on the roof)…has been removed. The bell is still in our possession. It is dated 1913 and was cast by the famous Whitechapel Bell Foundry, who also cast Big Ben and the Liberty Bell.
…it is one of the oldest purpose-built scout buildings in the world, quite possibly the oldest (we have not been able to find any older example). To put the date of the Hall in context, Robert Baden-Powell ran the first Scout camp at Brownsea Island in 1907. The following year he published a series of magazines entitled ‘Scouting for Boys’ which prompted young people across the country to form themselves into Scout troops. By 1910 there were approximately 100,000 scouts in the UK. The newly built Hall in New Marston just a few years later than the start of the Scout movement shows remarkable belief in the purpose of this fledgling movement.”
[Plan and photograph of the building as originally built and as found today – to be added]
The inclusion of a rifle range in original design is unusual for a Scout Hall. It suggests that the building was designed to be dual purpose, perhaps for Volunteer Forces training as well as for Scouts. Drill Halls for Volunteer Forces were a common sight in towns and cities from the middle of the 19th Century. The rifle range in Drill Halls were specifically designed to be 90 feet long and 12 feet wide. These are the dimensions of the integral rife range at New Marston Scout Hall. This adds to the enigma. However, the Kelley’s Directory entry for 1914 states about New Marston:
“There is a Mission room at New Marston, connected with the church, and a Boy Scouts’ hall for the two villages,…[N.B. Old and New Marston]…built at the expense of Miss Peto in 1913; it is equipped with a rifle range, which is also used by the Marston Rifle Club.“
The Mission room in Ferry Road is now a Russian Orthodox Church [see separate upcoming entry to this website].
Given its early date of build within the history of Scouting, the leadership of 10th Oxford (Marston) Scout group consider the building to be of great “…significance to the wider Scout movement. It should really be listed.” Roy Darke (who prepared this note) made inquiries to the Scouting Association about whether the New Marston Scout building might be the first ever purpose-built Scout Hall but their records could not confirm whether this was the case, or not.
New Marston Scout Hall in current context
The Scout Hall is well known and revered in New Marston partly because of the saying “England expects that every man will do his duty” that is engraved on a door lintel facing Marston Road. It was the signal sent by 1st Viscount Nelson from his flagship HMS Victory as the Battle of Trafalgar was about to commence on 21 October 1805. The main use of the Hall for meetings of ‘the Tenth’ is reflected in the ‘Be Prepared’ motto carved over the main door on William Street.
The building is constructed in whitewashed render over brick walls with the steep red tiled roof having substantial overhang at the eaves. The external appearance extends a modest tribute to the simplicity of Voysey and Arts and Crafts architecture in general, rather than the more elaborate and eclectic style of George and Peto. The main elevation well expresses the building’s function. The porch has a substantial half-timbered corners and sturdy part-glazed double doors. The high-level timber windows facing William Street give a studio-style means for day-lighting the main hall. The small-paned large casement windows are topped by hipped gables over dormer style extensions on the roof. The hip gable motif is carried round onto the high-level dormer window on the Marston Road elevation. The Hall was originally enclosed by a low boundary wall with piers and metal railings above. It also had a square bell turret with pitched pyramidical roof. The railings were removed at some point in the past (probably during WW2 to contribute recycled iron to the war effort) and the bell turret taken down.
The internal space of the hall is impressive in occupying the main space under the roof with expressed timber main frame and trusses.
The Hall is available for community use and general hire when not required by the Scouts, particularly during the day and at weekends.
New Marston (South) Residents' Association 