Chorleywood Scouts have raised £3,500 in just six weeks to help pay for repairs to their hut.

In January the Watford Observer reported how the scout group was trying to find more than eight times its annual fundraising total to repair the old and poorly insulated building in Orchard Drive.

Nigel Hammond, building manager, said the scouts needed £35,000 to stop the hut, built in 1956, from “leaking like a sieve”.

Sarah Wright, Beaver leader and fundraising coordinator, said: “It's been a really busy half term, we have had three events very close together, and each one was a great success.

“In the last six weeks alone we have raised more than £3,500 towards our renovations project. The insulation work on the building is now almost complete, and hopefully we will have a much warmer winter this year.

“We must not sit back on our laurels though. We're looking ahead to some Christmas events at the Late Night shopping evening, and a quiz night in the new year, as we set our sights on phase two of the project, to rebuild the garages and sort out rainwater run-off.”

A Murder Mystery dinner, held on the weekend of October 15 and 16 with the Rickmansworth players, raised £550 thanks to the support of the attendees and raffle prizes from Poores and The Peppermill Restaurant.

Ms Wright said: “Our Sponsored Bike Ride raised a whopping £1410. We had a great turnout of 46 boys to take part in completing 838 laps of our course on the common between them.

“A week later we had a successful Jumble Sale at the newly opened hall The Junction at Christchurch.

“I'm pleased to say that we didn't wreck this fabulous new facility, it was perfect for the sale and we raised £880.

“Shortly after the jumble, all of the left over fabric items were collected by a recycling company - we had a staggering 370 kilograms collected, giving us another £185 towards our total.”

It has not been an entirely successful year however, in September the Beavers arrived at their allotment in Dog Kennel Lane to find it had been vandalised.

The boys had worked hard throughout the spring and summer, growing sweetcorn, potatoes and giant sunflowers from seed.

The Watford Observer reported how the cages had been upturned and smashed, the sweet corn had been trampled, and all the sunflowers had been uprooted.

Ms Wright added: “The publicity we had and the fundraising events has also led to £225 of donations this term as anonymous individuals have been keen to lend us their support.”