The first camp at Wytham (Oxford)
The history of Thames Valley Christian Camp (TVCC) work goes back to the late 1950s. In 1958 a group of Christians from the Thames Valley area, inspired by other Christian camping organisations of that era, were exercised about running a camp for local children. The objective was to provide a low-cost holiday for young people where they could receive spiritual instruction as well as enjoy a fun-filled camping holiday.

The initial committee consisted of Mr. Cecil Smith (Maidenhead), Mr. Hedley Bray (Maidenhead), Mr. John Gilkerson (Datchet), Miss Avis (Datchet), Mr. Ken Brighton (Windsor) and Mr. K. Wilton (Slough). Various attempts were made to secure a suitable site for the proposed camp and eventually the first camp was arranged for the Whitsun weekend (May 16th to 18th) 1959 at Wytham Camp near Oxford.

Nat Sullivan (Aldershot) was invited to be the camp "padre" (responsible for the spiritual side of camp), Mr. Cecil Smith was the camp "commie" (responsible for the overall camp leadership) and Miss Avis was responsible for the cooking. A group of 11 officers and 27 children aged 12 and over made their way by train to Oxford on the Saturday morning and spent a happy weekend at the camp site, returning home on the Monday evening.

The Climping Years
The following year's camp was again arranged for the Whitsun weekend. The Oxford venue was not available this time and so the Barnabus Trust camp site in the village of Climping (on the South coast near Littlehampton) was used. The camp ran from Friday evening until Monday evening and thus began the long tradition of Climping Camp with camps run over the Whitsun weekend (later to become the Spring Bank Holiday) for the next 42 years. In 1979 the length of camp was extended from 3 to 4 days, running now from Friday evening until Tuesday evening.

The Move to Romsey
In 2002 Climping Camp became Romsey Camp with the change to the current venue of the Hampshire Christian Trust camp site at Lockerley Water Farm near Romsey Hampshire. The camp still runs for 4 days over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend.

Camp Leadership
For 21 years Cecil Smith ran the camps at Climping, with his wife Iris organising the cooking for much of that time. After his retirement a number of others have been camp "commie"; Mr Smith was succeeded by Victor Michael (Maidenhead), and then in later years Andrew Rice (Hurst), Paul Cox (Maidenhead), Trevor Mitchell (Hurst) and Alan Michael (Maidenhead) have all taken on this role. Many others have been involved in a variety of leadership roles and the camps have provided a great opportunity for many young people to get involved in Christian service.

Support from Local Churches
The TVCC work has always been closely connected with local churches in the Thames Valley area. It has drawn support from many in the area, particularly from Maidenhead, Windsor, Slough, Staines, Datchet, Bracknell, Hurst and High Wycombe. Over the years support has also come from further afield from places such as Guildford, Ash Vale, Hitchin, Horsham, Ealing and Wallingford. TVCC's primary purpose is to support the youth work of these local churches.

YP Weekends
The work has expanded since the early camping days to include a number of other initiatives to help young people to grow spiritually. In the early 80s it was felt that there was a need to provide training for older young people to help them take up roles as tent leaders on camp. As a result the TVCC Bible Study weekends were started in order to provide practical and focused Bible teaching for young people aged 15 to 25 years old. Youth leaders at Parkside Hall Maidenhead had already been organising youth house parties for some time and it was decided to bring these under the TVCC umbrella and invite other groups to be involved. The first TVCC weekend was held at Sunbury Court (a Salvation Army training Center in Sunbury on Thames) in February 1983 with a group of around 40 young people. Since that first weekend, 2 weekends have been held each year, in October and February / March, at a variety of venues across the South of England. The early weekends were held at Sunbury Court (in February) and Feldon Lodge (in October). More recently the venues have been the Woodcroft Christian Center near Chepstow for the October weekend and Legge House near Swindon for the February / March weekend. The Bible Study weekends normally run from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. A guest speaker is invited to take up a specific subject. There are Bible study sessions on Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. The Saturday morning session will generally be followed by discussion groups and these have proved helpful to many young Christians in providing a forum for discussing issues relating to the Christian life. The Saturday afternoon is generally free time and later in the evening on Saturday there is normally some organised group activity such as a quiz, games, etc.

YP Weekends Holidays
In 1986 a week’s holiday in the summer was added to the programme. The objective was to provide affordable holidays for Christian young people that would provide a mix of relaxation and Christian fellowship. The holidays were generally self catering with an invited speaker giving relevant Bible teaching in the evenings and the day times free for day trips, excursions or just sitting on the beach. For 20 years these holidays provided cheap and wholesome holiday experiences for many young people with the opportunity for many to meet young people from other places and many long standing friendships have been forged on these excellent holiday weeks. Some of the holiday destinations have included, Tintagel in Cornwall, Abersoch in North Wales, Rydall Hall in the Lake District, Kinmell Hall in North Wales, Devon near Lynton / Lynmouth, Moorlands College on the South Coast, Northumbria, Newton mid Wales and Sherringham on North Norfolk coast.

Other Activities
Through the year there are camp reunions in different locations to enable campers to get together and share memories of the previous year's camp. For many years now TVCC has organised a Young People's Christmas Carol Service which has been hosted at Parkside Hall in Maidenhead. This is normally held on the last Saturday evening before Christmas each year and is a great opportunity for many associated with TVCC to get together for a reunion. Different groups present different "items" for the programme consisting of songs, sketches, quizzes, etc and then the evening concludes with a short topical message from an invited speaker followed by refreshments.

TVCC Website
For the last few years TVCC has had its own website tvcc.info which has proved very popular amongst campers and leaders alike, helping to keep people updated about TVCC events and enabling everyone to keep in contact and display pictures from previous camps and events.

Traditional Camp Activities
A feature of TVCC camps has always been the action packed programme of activities for young people, which complement the spiritual side of camp. Over the years activities have changed and more recently become more high-tech with the innovation of bouncy castles, data projectors, and in the last year even a camp radio, but the common theme of good wholesome fun has remained all the way through.

Some of the traditional and well loved camp activities have included:

Late-night walk - at the Climping site it was traditional to walk down to the beach on the evening of arrival and sometimes (if the coach journey to camp had been delayed) this could extent to midnight and beyond. Despite the late nights it could be guaranteed that the hardy campers would be up the next morning, at the crack of dawn, playing football even before the officers had stirred for their early-morning prayer meeting.

Hunt-the-Officer - many hilarious hours have been spent by campers, in towns like Littlehampton, Arundel and Romsey, searching for their cunningly disguised officers. Although the objective of hunt the officer is to be unrecognisable, there would always be some officers in outrageous dress that could not be missed.

Camp Concert - the whole camp gathers on one evening for a "talent" show. Each tent would present a song, poem, quiz, or sketch for the entertainment of the whole camp. The camp concert has provided many memorable moments over the years including the infamous "SAS raid" of the early 80s, and one occasion, when half the camp had gone down with sickness caused by a stomach bug doing the rounds, and one concert performer opened her mouth to speak and promptly "performed" all over the front row of the audience. Old classics such as the "Hey Jake" sketch are recycled on a regular basis for the benefit of new generations.

Its-a-Washout - the traditional camp sports day takes the form of an Its-a-Knockout style competition between the various teams on camp. Generally camp is blessed with good weather and this allows us to participate in numerous silly games - many of which involve the use of water. A recent popular "classic" is the egg throwing game - which requires participants to catch an egg thrown over a progressively large distance. I'll avoid the obvious joke here about the losers and egg on their faces at the end of the game. The end of proceedings invariably signals the start of a camp wide water fight - which for some campers may be the only wash of the week.

Camp Fire - Sunday evenings has traditionally been the bonfire night. The Tech Team spend the day building a fire from dead branches and wood scavenged from around the site. Typically after a BBQ meal, as the light fades in the evening, the whole camp will gather around the fire and enjoy a time of singing and testimonies. This has often been a very moving time when we have seen God at work in a special way through the testimonies of both campers and officers alike.

From the Archives
A total of 38 people (11 officers and 27 campers) attended the first camp near Oxford in 1959. The cost for that first (3 day camp) was £1 10s 0d.

At the most recent camp in 2008 a total of 96 (36 officers and 60 campers) people of attended. With inflation over 50 years the cost for that (4 day) camp has risen to £54 which still represents excellent value for money for the holiday provided.