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UniYouth

The residential weekends at The Nightingale Centre have been the centre of the Unitarian youth programme for decades. Until the pandemic each age group had two weekends in Great Hucklow: Juniors for 7-11 year-olds, Inters for 11-14 year-olds, and Seniors for 14+. Each group enjoyed age-appropriate activities indoors and in the beautiful Peak District, with a light religious touch, often making Unitarian friends for life. It was disappointing, if not surprising, that the Covid years affected attendance at the youth weekends, especially among the two older groups. However, once the Juniors weekends resumed in October 2022, the children made friends quickly, as did their parents, and wanted to see each other regularly. Many of the children were too soon at the age of 11 when they would no longer attend the Juniors weekends. Several (including my own sons) instead joined the annual camping weekend at a Unitarian-owned camping barn at Flagg, not far from Hucklow. These camping weekends were for unaccompanied 11-14-year-olds, looked after by Unitarian volunteers and staff from Unitarian College. However, we were rapidly outgrowing the facilities at Flagg, and particularly on rainy days there was not enough indoor space for a large group.

Parents and carers lobbied Unitarian College to make provision for the older children by accommodating them alongside the Juniors programme in The Nightingale Centre where there was plenty of room for them. There were also practical advantages; many of us had children in both age groups, so would be driving to Hucklow anyway. It is not widely known that our children’s weekends enjoy exclusive use of The Nightingale Centre (with financial support from the Wood Green Trust) for their youth programme. That’s 78 beds!

There were successful precedents for such an arrangement: in June 2019 there was an oversubscribed Uni-Fest at The Nightingale Centre, for families with children of any age. Everyone enjoyed the inter-generational weekend and we all lobbied for a repeat Uni-Fest in 2020. Alas.

In March 2018 my eldest son (then 8) and I booked to attend our first Juniors weekend. Unfortunately the weekend had to be cancelled because of heavy snowfall in Derbyshire and was rescheduled two weeks later at the same time as the Seniors weekend. So we had two different age groups, with separate programmes, housed in separate sections of the spacious Nightingale Centre but sharing mealtimes and some activities. It worked very well and formed the blueprint for what in 2025 became the UniYouth weekends. (Both groups were snowed in at that weekend in March 2018, but that’s a different story!)

In recent years the residential weekends have forged a closer relationship with the Unitarian chapel in Great Hucklow, just a few steps away from The Nightingale Centre. The children plan the Sunday-morning worship and lead the service in the chapel, reflecting on the theme for the weekend. Many of the children bring teddies to donate to Send a Child to Hucklow. For families without a nearby congregation this may be their only contact with a Unitarian church.

There are lots of opportunities for fun and learning in the Peak District and recent day trips have included a boat trip in an underground mine, exclusive hire of an outdoor swimming pool, two visits to theme parks, a climbing centre and Eyam “plague” village.

Practical considerations: The Nightingale Centre (with support from the Wood Green Trust) provides the children’s food and accommodation free of charge, while accompanying parents/carers pay £220. Many families receive funding from their congregations or districts to help with these costs. It would be good to establish funding for parents accompanying their 7-11-year-old children. Children aged 11 and over can attend without an adult, and some families share the driving, with one adult delivering multiple children. One large congregation in the North-West hires a minibus to deliver their over-11s to Hucklow!

What do the kids think? They love everything – the food at the Nightingale Centre, the fully equipped playground outside, visiting the chapel full of teddies, lantern walks, playing football on the field, muddy forest school, the day trips, but most of all, seeing their friends. It is wonderful to see the current UniYouth continue to enjoy the Hucklow traditions such as pretend “baptisms” in the village trough, long walks in the countryside, and lantern walks round the dark village.

Future plans: I think it’s important that our children have access to a predictable (and affordable) programme of Unitarian experiences: two UniYouth weekends per year now provide a solid base of provision for our 7-14 year-olds, on which we can build more youth programming in our congregations and districts. There are already other events for adults that have excellent children’s programmes, such as the GA Annual meetings and FUSE, and it would be good to maximise family attendance. The parent group would now like to explore ways of keeping our young people within the movement after the age of 14. One parent, who is a father of three aged 7-13, defined what he wants from a Unitarian youth programme:

“I want my children to have a group of friends outside school, whose families are likely to share similar values, and with whom they can mark life’s milestones.”

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