In the 1970s, a campsite at Climping, near Littlehampton on the South Coast, became host to a 10 night camp known simply as "Climping". Children and leaders slept in old canvas bell tents or caravans, and there was a very rudimentary toilet block and a meeting hall with little more than a domestic kitchen which somehow managed to cater admirably for groups of over 100! The evening meeting on these camps came to be known as Lighthouse, reflecting both the coastal location and the frequent use of "Light" as a picture of good things in the Bible.
After 21 years, the last Climping camp took place in 1996. The overall leaders (George and Jill Lihou with Peter and Jennie Gallant) set up a charity, "The Jonas Trust", which to this day runs a Christian retreat and conference centre in Redmire, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales (find out more at www.jonascentre.org). The Climping camps moved to the Jonas Centre, and enjoyed much improved accommodation in log cabins set on the side of the valley with fabulous views. Many of the traditions from Climping were maintained, including the evening "Lighthouse" meeting. The holidays continued at Redmire until 2002, by which time George and Jill, Peter and Jennie had retired from the venture leadership. The remaining team were mostly based in the South and the practicalities of running a venture so far from home proved too difficult, so in 2003 the ventures moved to Tockington, near Bristol and nearer the team members.
Tockington provided us with the luxury of boarding school accommodation and an onsite swimming pool! Again, many traditions, including our daily Lighthouse, travelled with us. In 2004 we established a second "taster" venture aimed especially at those who have never been away from home before. This proved almost more popular than the main venture, and so it has remained a permanent part of our venture offering. In 2009 we felt the time was right to end our association with the school at Tockington, and so we started to look for a new site, slightly more central, slightly larger and with more up to date facilities.
From 2010 the ventures have been located at Pinewood School in the village of Bourton, near Swindon. We decided it was time to choose a name that reflected more of what we do rather than where we are, and so we adopted "Lighthouse" as our venture name. We hope that it captures clearly what we are trying to do: to show the light of Jesus Christ to those who come on the ventures.
