Cambridge District Scout Archive
Leather work was an activity badge available from 1908 to 1967. It was a badge that spanned hobby and job skills, the options being work on shoes, saddlery or decorative work.
Few examples remain in the local archive collection or groups. Photographs exist of the leather used on totem poles, but whilst the totem poles remain the leather work has gone.
One known example from the 11th Cambridge, dated 1937, remains with the 11th/9th Cambridge. The animals depicted do not represent the patrols of the era, indeed I have never come across a Shoebill patrol. The animals and lines are impressed and coloured. Doggett has not yet been identified. The punched holes across the bottom may suggest a fringe or further decoration but nothing remains of this detail.
The 1st Cambridge Sea Scouts Log book from 1945 – 47 had a variation which is probably leather.
Whole skins were used as noticeboards; most notably at camps but some photographs of use in scout huts also exist.
JWR Archivist Mar 2022
Cambridge District Scout Archive 