Plans submited to extend the Little Gem Museum at Waddecar Scout Activity Centre

Waddecar Scout Activity Centre in the Forest of Bowland, near Goosnargh, is a well known attraction offering scouts, guides and other youth and school groups the chance to visit a residential camp where they can take part in a host of outdoor activities, including climbing, abseiling, high ropes, archery, canoeing and raft building.

The Snape Rake Lane site is also home to the West Lancashire Scouts, one of the largest Scout Counties in the UK, boasting a membership of over 13,000, as well as the Little Gem Mesum, founded in 2000 as the country’s first purpose-built museum dedicated to the history of Scouting and Guiding.

Waddecar Scout Activity Centre has seen some big changes recently - in 2024 it was given permission for a new two storey accommodation block - and now it looks like more change could be on its way.

Last week, Preston City Council received a planning application for a “two storey extension to front and first floor extension to side” for a property at Waddecar Scout Camp.

Planning documents reveal the building in question is the Little Gem Museum - full name ‘Be Prepared – The Story of Scouting and Guiding Museum’- which sits to the north of the site.

The application form confirms that the extension to the front of the building is to make it level with the existing front elevation whilst there will be an additional second storey extension to the eastern side of the musuem.

Plan drawings show this will create a new 6.9m x 5.2m room on the ground floor and a new 6.9m x 13.3m exhibit room on the first floor.

If approved it would mean the museum would have two exhibit areas in total, the ground floor already being home to one.

The layout of the rest of the building will remain largely the same.

A spokesperson from Little Gem Museum told the Post that the extension will “greatly enable us to have more space to display the many items we have in storage and allow us extra storage space (back room on the plans) by moving the current wall forward to 'square-off' the building.”

The Story of Scouting and Guiding Museum (aka: The Little Gem) is a registered charity, independent of both the Scout and Guide Associations, and West Lancashire Scouts.

The museum is based on the Camp Site as its founder was a West Lancashire Scouter, who needed to find somewhere to locate his ever-growing collection of Scouting and Guiding Memorabilia.

The Scout County agreed his request to have a permanent building in which to house these items for all Scouts and Guides using the site to see and now they have agreed to the extension too.

Waddecar Centre Manager Damian King told us: “We are very pleased to have the Little Gem Museum located here at Waddecar and their extension will enable even more young people to learn about our heritage.”

The consulation process for this application is now open and you have until May 3 2026.

You can read the full application and find out how to comment on the planning website here.

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