Dungroamin Holidays |
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The holiday that smells but has no taste |
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The disorganisation referred to as Dungroamin Holidays has evolved over the years since 1971. Its roots can be traced back to when Alan, Martin and John Evans took the scout troop patrol leaders to a PGL adventure centre in South Wales at Easter.
This started a trend of camps at Easter which continued through 1972, 1973 and 1974 when Pat Hankin became the first female attendee. Then there was a landmark camp near Snowdon in the snow in 1975 which featured the first non-scout/guide-trained campers when Jerry, Steve and Jean Compton joined the “professionals”. Jerry recalls this momentous occasion as possibly the coldest he’s ever been.
Whether or not the shock of this camp was too great, is unclear, but outings from 1976 to 1982 were either in barges or cottages. At the first of these the Hartleys made a initial appearance.
The annual trip was suspended in 1979 and 1981 for rounds of sprogging by the main participants.
With growing numbers and difficulties in finding large enough accommodation, a return was made to camping in 1983 but gone were the ridge tents and scout equipment and in were the frame tents and modern gaz stoves. The site called Sandy Balls was chosen largely because of its name, thus setting the trend in Dungroamin humour. At this camp the Baynes and Blackabys made their first appearance as visitors.
Early ‘brochures’ were little more than a letter. The first one in 1983 started with the statement “This year sees the birth of a new era of holidays organised as a joint venture between Dung-roaming Holidays and Rent-a-crowd Unlimited.”
Two years later in 1985, the Waltons made a first appearance as visitors in a year when gale force winds nearly swept us off the campsite at Osmington.
The following year, 1986, the first foreign trip took place to France attended by the Parsons and Evans.
Up until 1987 participants had been mainly old friends of Alan or Jerry established either through scouts or Manchester University. Exceptions were the Hartleys who were ex-work place colleagues of Jerry and the Comptons who had the misfortune to belong to the same badminton club as Alan and Jerry in Palmers Green, North London.
In 1987 the next era dawned when additional families started to attend; the Clarkes in 1987, the Longs in 1990 and the Measures in 1991.
1989 was the first year that the logo appeared inspired by the trading name and the “Don't let your dog foul the campsite” sign at the Moon and Sixpence campsite.
The Dungroamin ‘brochure’ was initially a single page letter. The 1989 brochure carried a picture of the 1988 camp and by 1992 some cryptic reporting of the previous years events was included. These reports started to receive encouraging reviews and by 1995 the brochure extended to four pages.
The maximum attendance of 34 (28 campers and 6 visitors) occurred in 1993 in the New Forest.
During the period that the children were growing up, it became the tradition for the girls to put on some entertainment and for there to be a rounders match between the parents and kids. On some occasions these matches carried on after dark with varying levels of success.
From about 1994, Dave introduced a quiz which normally took place after the barbecue and this became a regular much anticpated feature of Dungroamin. Later this included a Mastermind section on a chosen individual’s assumed specialist subject. Scoring was not high in this event.
In 1999 the first colour brochure was produced. Also the terms “uni-droams” and “bi-droams” were suggested for first and second generation Dungroamers respectively.
Between 1995 and 2000 holidays switched to the August bank holiday so that they would not interfere with the bi-droams exams. As a result they became events at which they would celebrate their successes rather over enthusiastically.
The last trip with the bi-droams was in 1999.
2004 was a sad year for Dungroamin as Dave, who had become one of the stalwarts of Dungroamin, became ill and unfortunately passed away. There is no doubt that he will be remembered for the enjoyment he brought to our yearly quizzes.
2006 saw the first trip abroad since 1986 with a trip to Prague when we were joined by two new Dungroamers, Pete and Kathy who used to be friends of Brian and Joanie.
In 2008, another new Dungroamer came along – Geraint, an ex–university colleague of Alan, Jerry, Rick and Alan and Gail.
In 2014, we went back to our roots and arranged a “take–it–or–leave–it” event in the south of England to give those Dungroamin aficionados who don't fancy our foreign sojourns to take part again. This has proved reasonably successful, with 13 attendees or more in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
These trips abroad continued up until 2019, when the outbreak of Coronavirus put a stop to our travelling. 2020 was celebrated with a small digital get-together by Zoom. Physical meet-ups started again in October 2021.