Forge Wood Sports Pitch and Pavilion, Crawley

New sports pitch and pavilion

To meet the needs of a new housing development, we were appointed to build a new sports pitch and pavilion. Working to Sports England requirements, this project involved design and construction of the pavilion and a natural turf facility including a cricket outfield, cricket square and drainage pitch. The sports pitch was undertaken by Bourne Sport with all other areas managed by Mildren Construction.

Pavilion construction
Initially a construction yard was demolished and recycled elsewhere on site making way for the new pavilion. We then built the new pavilion on traditional strip foundations.

The build comprised traditional brick block and blockwork, block and beam floor with a screed finish. Cladding is cedral weather board and the roof is a prefabricated, pitched, timber trussed, felt and battoned roof, tiled with a slate effect. The roof has two gable ends and two dormer canopies giving shelter outside.
The main hall is linked to a kitchen by a servery hatch and has a set of bifold doors providing flow from the main hall to the sports pitch whilst allowing natural light. The pavilion has changing facilities with showers for two teams and separate changing facilities for officials. All fitting out was completed by Mildren.

Planting and soft landscaping
We formed an earth bund around the perimeter of the cricket pitch and laid a pedestrian cycle way / footpath around 450m in length.

The project included earthworks, top soil and loam import, drainage, fertilising and seeding, all of which bedded-in well despite the hosepipe ban in summer and heavy snow in winter 2022.

Environmental initiatives
The project achieved BREEAM Very Good. Further environmental initiatives included 50 trees planted and installation of an air source heat pump hot water system. Our CCS score was excellent – 41/45.

Social value initiatives
Following some windy weather which caused widespread damage across the UK, we repaired fencing for the local school and for some local neighbours, free of charge. We also machine dug a trench which was to be used for children’s gardening lessons and donated materials in the local community.