GIRL Guides entrusted with the delivery of a precious cargo faced an unexpected hazard.

Members of the 1st Islip company had decided to cycle across Otmoor to hand over a scroll of friendship.

What they hadn’t realised was that soldiers were carrying out shooting practice on the military firing range there.

So they had to make a last-minute detour, riding around Otmoor to stay out of danger.

The Islip Guides were one of many groups chosen to deliver the scrolls to the movement’s 13th World Conference in Oxford in July 1950, marking 40 years of Guiding.

As we recalled (Memory Lane, June 29), the scrolls arrived from all over the country by different forms of transport – river, canal, cycle and on horseback, to name a few.

When they arrived at South Park, in Oxford, where 10,000 Guides had gathered, Princess Margaret handed them to delegates from 27 countries.

A typical scroll read: “The Guides of the British Isles send this Scroll as a token of friendship to their sister Guides in the United States, and may many exchange visits between the two countries be possible in the coming years.”

Joyce Ushaw, of Fencott Road, Charlton-on-Otmoor, a member of Islip Guides, who were led by Vera ‘Lefty’ Goodhind, recalls how privileged they felt to be taking part.

She and her fellow cyclists collected their scroll from Wendlebury Guides at Ashley Bridge, on the Mer-ton to Ambrosden road and rode to Beckley, where they handed it to Beckley Guides for the next stage of its journey to Oxford.

Another highlight of the week-long festival was a water pageant on the River Cherwell, in the University Parks.

VIPs had seats on the city side of the river, while the Guides and the public were on the Marston side.

Boats, including one with the Islip Guides on board, floated past the scene to the sound of Handel’s Water Music.

Mrs Ushaw tells me that they had travelled on their boat on the Cherwell all the way from Islip.

“As Edward the Confessor was born at Islip, we dressed to depict the era.

“I was Maud, Edward’s mother, and nursed a baby doll throughout the journey.

“The climax to this wonderful occasion was a huge camp fire in South Park.”