1st Viewpark

The 1st Viewpark Company was founded on the 15th September 1951. Enrolling on that evening with Mr Jack MacGregor Captain, 6 Lieutenants, a Warrant Officer, 3 Staff Sergeants and 23 Boys.

Since then the Company has always met on Thursday evening. On 8th November 1951 the 1st Viewpark were enrolled into Motherwell Battalion, and a loan of £40 was granted by the Church and repaid from the Company’s first BB Week when the total raised was £50 and two shillings. A successful inspection and Display marked the end of the first session.

1st Viewpark

The Company’s first Camp was a joint one with 1st Belshill Company at Troon. Camp dues were: Officers £3, 5d (£3 & 5 Shillings) Sergeants £2, 15d and Boys £2, 10d. Later Camps were at Helmsdale, Millport and Ramsey, Isle Of Man.

The lifeboy team was started on 25th September 1952, Leader-in-Charge Mr J Bald.

1954 was the Company’s first entry into the Motherwell Battalion Drill Cup Competition, (20 Boys in Squad, drilling in four’s) where we finished 4th equal. During the period 1955-1960 the cup was won by us on 5 occasions.

The Company's first band was a Silver Band and was formed in 1960 and was successful for a number of years leading parades in the District. It was eventually disbanded in the early 70’s.

Mr MacGregor resigned after a most successful term as Captain at the end of the session 1962/62. Mr Andrew West was appointed Captain by the Kirk Session.

1st Viewpark Squad Drill Winners

(Circa 1960)

1st Viewpark Squad Drill Winners

1st Viewpark in Centenary year 1983

A Final Company Picture for retiring Captain Andrew West

Captain West’s Last Display 1999

The Company continued to be active in Motherwell Battalion where Companies were keenly competitive.

Only notable successes were intermediate Football in 1966 and Cross Country in 1972.

We formed a second Company Band in 1974, this time a Bugle band which was successful and popular in it’s time.

In 1969 the Belshill and District Companies formed their own Battalion, with the 1st Viewpark participating in all aspects. In 1978 the Bugle Band was superseded by a Flute Band which competed most successfully in the Scottish BB Band Contest.

1997 Belshill and District Battalion disbanded as it was unable to meet the new criteria of a Battalion and 1st Viewpark Company was invited and willingly accepted and invitation to joint Airdrie Coatbridge & District Battalion, and again continues to be a competitive Company in this area.

Company Camps were under canvas, each year from 1964 to 1991 at various sites throughout the UK including Guernsey and the Channel Islands.

Mr Andrew West resigned as Captain in 1999 after 37 years, ending 40 years association with the Company. Andrew continued his BB work though being heavily involved in Battalion work.

Mr Jim Penman took over the reigns as captain and has continued the good work ensuring that both the Junior and Company Sections have won their respective Challenge Trophies under his tenure.

A Gift presentation to Captain West and his wife.

In 2007 Our Church under went refurbishment which we will hope will continue to see the

1st Viewpark remain a vibrant company in this area.

1st Viewpark Company 2009

Our Party consisted of 21 boys aged from 12 - 18, and 7 Officers. We left Viewpark Parish Church on the Friday at 7.45am and afetr a long bus journey which took us through France we arrived in Adelboden Switzerland at 11.30am on the Saturday. Tired but full of excitement the boys soon settled into their new surroundings.

Over the next few days we travelled around and include a visit to Pfingstegg where we had lunch at the foot of the Eiger, and the boys enjoyed the dry toboggan run, then up the Schynige Platte which has an altitude of 1967 metres, train up and climbed back down, these trips came to a high when we went up the Jungfraujoch altitude 3454 metres again using a train we went through tunnel after tunnel even through the Eiger but the journey was worth while for the spectacular views from what is known as the top of Europe from here you can see France, Austria and Germany. On mountain the boys had lunch sitting on the snow in bright sunshine and then had a go at snow discing.

The day after this long journey we had a quieter day when we travelled to Kandersteg and up to Oeschinensee where we were able to swim in a mountain lake which was fed by snow covered mountains.

On the last Friday we went to the Adelboden Adventure Park where we experienced zip wire, rope bridges, abseiling and a pendulum swing for which we had to fling ourselves off a bridge and pray to God that the rope held 18 out of the 24 taking part in the park had the courage to do this, (yes including the Captain).

As if we had not packed enough in and not been on a high, we took part in the local festivities for the Swiss National Day where the newly formed pipe band won over the 1000 strong crowd when they took the stage as the final act, we then formed up as a company along side the locals and paraded through the town in a flame tourch lit where again we were greeted with cheers from every part of the village.

During the trip the boys experienced some fantastic views of a lovely country, and made many new friends in the Adelboden village, the Director of tourism visited the boys the day after the celebrations to thank them for their donation to the Adelboden village and returned this by gifting each boy with a souvenir pen and sweet, he then proceeded to make a speech in which he said that the Viewpark Company had been the first visitors to ask to take part in the celebrations and how pleased he was that we had as it brought together two Nations & two Cultures and hoped that we would be regular visitors to not only Switzerland but Adelboden.

After this high the boys spent a very relaxing day getting some presents for their folks back home, before they started their long return journey.

The 1st Viewpark Company would like to thank Adventure Abroad travel company and their rep Emma Hardy for organising the holiday which will be talked about for years to come.

Having had so much fun the boys are now looking forward to 2011 when they intend to travel to Adelboden again, this time Jim Penman hopes to include other youth groups from within the Viewpark Parish Church.

And as promised the boys have just completed 2 further car washes in which they raised £500 for The Cystic Fibrosis Trust, this was done to give something to others so they were not doing everything for themselves.