A New Club House

Back  in the early 90's an attempt was made to raise sufficient funds to allow us to build a new club house.

Applications were made to The Sports Foundation and various other bodies for grants. All were unsuccessful. The only area where any success was achieved was in the amount provisionally pledged by the membership. Approximately £7,500.00

The idea and enthusiasm gradually declined.

In August of 1994 our Fixture Secretary Peter Saunders told the committee that he was not prepared to pay any further subscriptions to a club whose club house was literally falling apart.

He proposed that a small steering committee be set up to seriously investigate the feasibility of rebuilding the club house. This committee would be made up of members directly connected with the building trade.

A poster was displayed asking for volunteers with the necessary qualifications.

Within two weeks a committee of seven members was inaugurated. They were:-

Brian Ellis.                    Retired Site Manager.

David Holton.               Builders Supplier Representative.

Allan Grocock.             Structural and Technical Adviser.

Vic Graham.                 Quantity Surveyor also the Club Treasurer.

Peter Saunders.            Services Engineer and acted as secretary for the committee.

John Gargaro.               Financial Adviser

Ivor Metcalfe.                Chairman.

The first meeting of this committee was held on 13 September 1994. Only four weeks after the decision was made by the main committee to carry out the feasibility study.

At this meeting the logistics of building a club house of the size and design we were considering was evaluated.

The building would need to be large enough to accommodate two short mats side by side without encroaching on the bar area..

It would need two changing rooms of sufficient size to accommodate 24 Ladies and 24 Men with full toilet facilities.

A kitchen large enough to serve the standard bowls tea and for heating food when required.. Such as on social occasions.

Gas fired central heating was an absolute necessity to encourage members to use the club house through the winter months.

The bar area would need to be larger than the original.

The new club house would be sited in the same area as the original, the only access being by single track concrete road. There would be difficulty in getting materials to site and spoil removed from site.

The new club house needed to be as free of maintenance as possible.

We would have to build the new club house in two stages. Stage one to remove the roof of the original club house, build the external walls and roof. And then when finances allowed, to dismantle the old club house from inside and then to build up the internal walls etc.

It was agreed at this first meeting that the membership should be kept fully informed of progress and to this end notes from each meeting would be posted for members to read. The notes from each meeting was printed on a different colour paper each time to attract the members to read them.

At no time would costs ever quoted on these notes to stop wild speculation and rumour being circulated.

A  local architect very kindly designed the club house and on this design those on the committee connected with quantity surveying and supply started to calculate material costs.

The services engineer started to collate costs for the supply of all services, which had to be bought 300 meters down the playing field to the site with the co-operation of the local football club as this work had to be carried out during the summer months prior to the football season starting. He also had to collate costs for the installation of plumbing, central heating and lighting.

The  committee was agreed that we would need to apply for a bank loan to enable us to finance the project. To this end the chairman and treasurer gave our bank manager a presentation outlining our proposal. The bank manager was very impressed and made a provisional offer of a loan. With this loan and with the money we held in our account plus what we were hoping to get in the way of loans and donations from the members we would have sufficient funds to start the project. 

The  new club house could not be erected during the bowling season unless we could build the shell around the old building without too much disruption to the running of the club.

Our target was to have a water tight building by Christmas 1995.

By  the time of the second meeting which was only two weeks after the inaugural meeting all the information required had been gathered.

Brick and tile samples were presented and the colours generally agreed.

It was also agreed that we should explore alternative types of building i.e. wooden and concrete sectional. to find out if an alternative may be financially easier to achieve.

Meetings were held every two weeks to ensure that all committee members were kept fully up to date with progress. One of the most important meetings was held with the Playing Field Association  and other tenants on the field to inform them of our intention to replace our club house.

We needed the co-operation of the football club when it came to laying in the  services and we needed the co-operation of the cricket club for access to the rear of the site to store building materials etc. It is our belief that they did not expect us to fulfil our intention. We had other ideas.

A considerable amount of discussion took place on how we were to raise sufficient finances to carry out stage two of the project. We would obviously be asking the membership for donations, interest free loans etc. with the incentive that there would be free membership as long as the loan was outstanding.

Knowing that Sports  Council Lottery Fund was soon to be accepting applications, a form was duly completed and sent off in December. We also approached the local district council for any assistance that they could give us and filled in an application form for grant from them.

It  was agreed by the committee that we would need to make a presentation to the membership so that we could fully advise them on costs building styles, financial constraints, modus operandi etc. The date for this presentation was to be on Sunday 29th January 1995. 

During the month of January quotation were received for alternative types of building but were discounted due to practical and maintenance reasons. 

The chairman and secretary filmed a video showing exactly how badly the club house had deteriorated over the previous 24 years. This video would be shown at the presentation so that nobody could be under any  misapprehension that we needed to do something as soon as possible. 

One week before the presentation was to be held, a rehearsal took place with an invited audience of the most pessimistic main committee member. He was very impressed. Also during the run up to the presentation night club members received humorous reminders of the meeting to whet their appetites.

Because the presentation would be quite a "heavy" meeting, programmes were printed on the style of The Radio Times with two intervals for the members to digest "the video nasty" and to get over the shock how much the new club house would cost us and that to enable us to achieve our aim we would need loans and donations to the sum of £32,000.00.

On  Sunday 29 January 1995 at 7.30pm the old club house was packed out with 99% of the membership.

After the steering committee had given the presentation a lively question and answer session took place without one single negative comment being made.

The point concerning borrowing money from the bank was probably the most debated considering the interest costs involved. Eventually a member from the floor suggested that there was sufficient funds within the membership in the way of donations and loans to enable the club to finance the first stage of the new building without going to the bank.

After the meeting each member was given a personalised letter asking them in which way they could help, either financially, with practical help or perhaps some other way. all these letters needed to be returned to the club treasurer by 14 February 1995 (St. Valentines Day. Our aim was to have all the money offered in our bank by 1 April 1995 (April Fools Day).

The total sum offered in donations and loans exceeded £37,000.00. This sum together with what we had in our bank was sufficient to enable us to build the first phase which would be the shell of the new club house without having to borrow money from the bank.

Needless to say the steering committee was very pleased with the response from the members. It far exceeded their wildest dreams.

At the next main committee meeting which was held in March 1995 the steering committee updated the committee on the financial situation and formally proposed that Kislingbury Bowls Club proceed with the building of a new Club House.

The steering committee their task done then resigned from office.

The  main committee voted on the proposal which was passed unanimously, and reinstated the defunct steering committee as the new building committee to overseer the forthcoming building work.

In  May we heard the good news that we had been successful in our grant application to The Sports Lottery Fund and had been awarded £42,500.00.

In July we also heard that our application to the Local District Council had been successful and that we had been awarded £10,000.00. With these two grants we were now in a position to complete the new building in it's entirety without the need to build in two phases.

With advice from the builders etc. it was decided that it would be cheaper, quicker and easier to completely demolish the old building as soon as the 1995 season was over clear the site and to start building. Our goal was still to have a water tight building by Christmas.

The total cost of the project came to £110,000. Made up as follows:-

£52,500.00      Grants from Sports Lottery Fund & South Northants District Council..

£57,500.00      The Clubs own finances & Loans & Donations from Members.

£110.000.00

Here  is a summary of key dates and the comments that accompany them.        

1994

August 10th .                            Decision made to set up steering committee.

September 13th                        Inaugural meeting of steering committee.

November 16th                        Application made to Local District Council.

December 19th                        Application made to The Sports Lottery Fund.

1995

January 29th                             Presentation made to the membership.

February 22nd                          Total of financial help offered by members exceed £37,000.00.       

March 10^th                              Steering committee formally propose that the new club house is built. Steering committee reinstated to manage the project.

May 1st                                   Notification that our grant application to The Sports Lottery Fund had been successful.

July 28th                                  Notification that our application to District Council had been successful

September 5^th to 25^th                  Members proceed to remove furniture and fixings from old club House.

September 26^th to 27th            Old Club House dismantled and burnt.

November 1st                          Commencement of footings being dug. 

December 25th                        The complete shell of the new club house was finished.

1996   

January to Mid April.               Internal finishing and decoration completed.                  

June 30th                                 Official opening.

Peter Saunders. New Club House Committee Secretary.