WITH some of its groups across Britain currently meeting via Zoom, nobody can accuse the Woodcraft Folk of failing to move with the times.

But scratch the surface and you will always find hallmarks of its history, exemplified by the chorus of the Folk’s anthem, which begins: “Hark! The beating of the tom-tom.”

In its early years, much of the Folk’s practice was inspired by an idealised — and yet somewhat twisted — understanding of American-Indian culture. In reaction to the apparent alienation of Western civilisation from the natural world, the pioneers of “woodcraft” thinking — well before the Folk itself was established — sought to emulate the American-Indian connection to the land.