An appropriate emblem represents each of the four divisions, North has the Crystal Palace tower, a Hunting Horn for Huntingfield, an area in which Henry VIII was known to hunt, an Oak Tree for Purley Oaks, part of Purley Division and a Fairground Carousel for Fairfield, with its fairground history.

Croydon became a Girlguiding County in its own right on 1st April 1974, and was officially named Greater London Croydon. A service of dedication was held on Sunday 7th April 1974 at Croydon Parish Church and was attended by the Mayor of Croydon, Alderman S. Littlechild.

Previously we had been part of the County of Surrey and wore the Surrey Lion but on the 7th June 1975 we officially received our new County badge, the Croydon crocus. The name Croydon comes from the pre-Saxon word 'Crohdene' - 'croh' meaning saffron, and 'dene' meaning valley. It therefore seemed appropriate to have the crocus as our County badge.

Download information on Croydon Guiding History - our thanks go to Margaret Davison for compiling this.