Llandudno Oval Bowling Clubhouse Refurbishment

Aim

Our 136-year-old clubhouse is of considerable sporting historic significance, but now requires refurbishment to give it a new lease of life.

Who are we?

First set up in 1905/06 and based at its current location since 1907, Llandudno Oval Bowling Club is the oldest bowling club in Llandudno. Land was offered for use as a bowling club by the right honourable Lord Mostyn who became the club’s second president serving from 1909 to 1924.

Set in a magnificent location nestling below the Great Orme, it has historically attracted many crown green bowlers and visitors from England to play on its’ green, widely regarded as the finest in North Wales.

With ambitions to target reaching over 100 members, we currently have 50-60 members from Llandudno & District who enjoy competitive and social bowling, There are three teams playing in North Wales league and cup competitions and our bowlers travel away to Anglesey, Caernarfon, Criccieth, Denbigh, Prestatyn and Rhyl. We want to double that number of teams.

The club offers a warm welcome seven days a week and attracts many tourists visiting Llandudno. Each season over one thousand visiting league players and 1,000-2,000 residents and visitors from England & Europe, enjoy the bowling, refreshments, and vibrant atmosphere.

Llandudno Oval Bowling Club is pet friendly and has the full support of our canine section for the plans to refurbish our clubhouse. To promote our crowdfunding project our social media campaign will be led by Club Mascot, Penny the Chihuahua.

Penny volunteers to chase off the green, any pesky birds making holes and feeding on grass seed. Penny knows all LOBC members and only barks at away team players if they don’t say hello to her!

Why are we crowdfunding?

The primary aims for our crowdfunding project are:

Objective 1: To develop our clubhouse as a social hub for members, residents and visitors, open all year round.

Objective 2: To improve the catering capabilities, so we can provide cooked food and other refreshments when hosting important representative bowling events. This will allow us to generate greater income from café and shop sales.

Objective 3: Long term, to allow the club to run more sustainably and achieve growth by increasing its membership and placing less reliance on grant support.

Background

For over 136 years, since 1890, our clubhouse has provided good service to the local sporting community. Firstly, as the original Llandudno Oval Cricket Club pavilion. Then in 1924, Lord Mostyn offered it to the Bowling Club, if the members could dismantle and move it to its present location. Over time, the clubhouse has been cared for and given a new roof, and exterior side walls, but unlike ‘Trigger’s broom’ 😀 underneath there are still many original Victorian features.

Unfortunately, the wooden shell and interior of the building now require refurbishment to give it a new lease of life. Over the winter, for urgent safety reasons we were forced to gut the kitchen and replace the rotten wooden floor and joists with tonnes of hardcore, covered with sand and cement. At a cost of over £4,250 this new flooring work plus fitting new kitchen units was undertaken, all at the club’s expense.

Replacing the rotten kitchen floor

Now we need your help to refurbish Llandudno Oval Bowling Club’s clubhouse so it can serve members, residents and visiting teams for the next generation.

We’re raising £23,000 to improve accessibility, modernise facilities, increase community use and secure the long-term future of this historic club.

A bowls club thrives based on the quality and reputation of its green. So, each year we spend thousands of pounds on seed, treatments, and equipment to keep the green in perfect condition.i

LOBC has no paid staff. All work to maintain the green and surrounds is undertaken by a volunteer green and maintenance team and a garden maintenance team. All manning of the clubhouse for shop & refreshment sales is undertaken by volunteers on a rota system. A Management Committee runs the club without taking any paid honorariums.

Using ONS guidelines, we estimate the contribution by LOBC volunteers just from March to October is more than 135 hours per week, equivalent to over £2,600 of labour costs. Even in the close season substantial improvement and maintenance work is undertaken on the green and club premises.

Because all this work is undertaken freely by volunteers, passionate about the club. It allows the club to keep membership fees at a competitive level to allow anyone to join.

We need to generate more income to cover our costs, so by digging into its limited reserves to upgrade the kitchen the club hopes it will generate more income from event and shop sales.

The rest of the clubhouse interior is tired and in a state of disrepair. There is no heating or proper insulation, meaning the building is underutilised.

An upgrade of the tired clubhouse interior has the potential to give the club a major boost!

How we’ll spend the money raised

We estimate that the budget to deliver most of our goals will be more than £23,000. Further improvement work can only begin after the bowling season finishes in October 2026, with a completion date in time for the 2027 bowling season.

Our refurbishment project plans and cost estimates are as follows:

Project items shown in bold are part of the crowdfund raise:

• Kitchen upgrade: (£4,250 already paid for by LOBC).
• Added kitchen electrical cooking and cleaning equipment: £1,000.
• The interior of the clubhouse needs insulation fitted: (Separate energy grant application).
• Installation of a heating system: (Separate energy grant application).
• Replacement of existing windows with new double-glazed windows and energy-efficient door: (Separate energy grant application).
• The interior of the clubhouse needs repairs/decorating: £1,500.
• The existing wooden floorboards and joists of the rest of the building need to be replaced by a hardcore and cement base: £4,000.
• New carpet and underlay floor covering fitted: £2,000.
• New wooden storage units and lockers need to be fitted: £1,000.
• The interior of the building needs new tables and chairs: £5,000.
• The front exterior of the building needs urgent repairs/decorating: £4,500.
• New replacement score boards need to be fitted: £500.
• Exterior boundary fence repair/replacement (phase1): £3,500.

Some more information about key project components:

At present the clubhouse can only be used during the bowling season from March to October. Because it is without proper heating it cannot be used at other times of the year, or during evenings. The interior of the clubhouse does not retain heat because of the high ceiling and can be cold. Last winter we had to hold our monthly committee meetings in the coffee shop of the local hospice. Fitting of insulation, a suitable heating system, double-glazed windows and an energy-efficient door will allow the bijou interior to be used for club social events. For these refurbishment project elements, the club is seeking a Sport Wales Energy Grant.

LOBC has already invested £4,250 of its own limited reserves for a major kitchen upgrade. This will allow us to meet the necessary food hygiene requirements when we prepare food for visiting competition entrants, teams, members, and residents.

By further upgrading our cooking equipment, we will be able to serve a wider range of items and generate greater income (estimate £1,000).

Following the repairs to our kitchen floor, we have discovered we need to do the same for the rest of the building, that means replacing the rotten wooden floor and joists with tonnes of hardcore, covered with sand and cement. This major repair will allow increased usage and extend the lifetime of the clubhouse (estimate £4,000).

New hard-wearing carpet flooring and underlay will be fitted in the lounge and a suitable robust surface in the locker room (estimate £2,000).

Currently the lounge interior features mismatched tables and tired chairs suitable for outdoor use. Our ambition is to turn the clubhouse into a small and cosy hub for the local community that can be used by members and residents for meetings and social events all year round. Other local organisations have previously expressed an interest in using the clubhouse for meetings, but we had to turn them away. The provision of suitable tables and comfortable chairs (estimate £5,000) will allow the space to be transformed and used as a small café for 30-35 visitors.

As a changing area the locker room is currently not functional and needs to be redesigned. New storage units need to be fitted to make effective use of the limited space in the lounge area and locker room. (estimate £1,000).

The interior of the lounge and locker room need redecoration, with the Victorian ironwork being sympathetically highlighted (estimate £1,500).

Removal, of the iron security grilles and fitting of sympathetically designed double-glazed windows will improve the clubhouse exterior appearance, allowing more light in, making it easier to keep the window glass clean and allowing bowling to be viewed from inside the clubhouse.

Front exterior maintenance and decoration will enhance the Victorian features of the original Cricket Club Pavilion and extend the lifetime of the roof extension:

Removal of four Victorian, heavily corroded, and rusted iron roof supports and one wooden support. Replacement with five new stainless steel roof supports manufactured to the original Victorian design and painted. (Estimated replacement cost £500 per roof support: £2,500).

Treatment and painting of front exterior: (Estimated cost £1,500)

A wheelchair ramp will be provided to improve accessibility: (Estimated cost £500).

New scoreboards will be added (Estimated cost £500).

Around the clubhouse, green, and gardens is a wooden boundary fence, sadly in need of repair/replacement from taking a constant battering from the winds that whip across the Oval. The fence also provides a necessary security barrier from the occasional unwanted attention of anti-social behaviour. The sections in most danger of collapse will be replaced first. (Estimated replacement cost: £3,500).

If through your generosity we exceed our primary target, then we will initially look to repair the rest of our boundary fence before it collapses.

Community impact

The value of the Bowling Club to the local community is well recognised by residents and local representatives. Llandudno Town Council have already earmarked a grant of £3,000 to the wider project upgrade, if the Club can show that other funding sources are supporting the initiative.

During the last year, the Club has looked to demonstrate its policy of promoting inclusivity within the community. With the support of the Co-op and Llandudno Town Council we have raised funds allowing us to purchase Bowls Buddies equipment to encourage youngsters to take an interest in bowling; a Bowls Royce special wheelchair that can be used on bowling greens to allow disabled people to participate; and the addition of baby changing facilities.

LOBC raises funds for the club by our volunteers providing an outdoors community shop and refreshment service point seven days a week, used by members, residents, tourists and users of the nearby football pitch and children’s play facilities. At present the club cannot welcome users inside the clubhouse because of a lack of suitable facilities. This can change with your crowdfunding support, allowing us to create a welcoming café.

Around our bowling green are volunteer kept, Llandudno in Bloom Gold Award winning gardens, popular as a quiet haven for residents and visitors.

Last year the club was pleased to offer the community a wall space to host a Welsh language medium mural for a Council & lottery funded arts project. Visitors can interact with the digital part of the installation using their mobile phones.

Your Support will yield many Positive Outcomes

Through your generous crowdfunding support delivery of this clubhouse refurbishment project will allow LOBC to:

• Encourage more people of all ages try something new, take up bowling, and stay active.
• Provide a social hub for members and residents offering a friendly welcoming meeting space that can help combat loneliness and mental health challenges.
• Improve accessibility for disabled users to enjoy the venue’s full range of facilities. LOBC promotes inclusivity and already has disabled toilets, and a special wheelchair for use on the bowling green.
• Provide a great venue for our Ladies Circle where women and girls feel more welcome.
• Become the home for our planned Llandudno Oval Bowling Academy. It will also welcome school and community groups using the space
• Raise the profile of LOBC among the bowling fraternity and attract many more playing and social members and visitors.
• Enhance, our ability to attract and host major representative matches, open competitions, and touring clubs. This in turn helps local community businesses including hotels and restaurants.
• Extend the longevity of the clubhouse to cater for the needs of current and future bowlers.
• Potentially allow the club to expand its range of sporting activities. The creation of a pétanque (boules) section is a possibility.
• Provide an overall, improved visitor experience.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

We appreciate all pledges given by supporters of LOBC. Free pledges will go direct to the bottom line of our project target.

For those who would like to experience what Crown Green Bowling has to offer, we are pleased to offer a range of bowling related benefits, shown below.

We will work with pledge makers to ensure rewards requested are delivered in a mutually acceptable time period. The estimated delivery date shown is a function of this website’s calendar.

With your agreement, all supporters of LOBC will have their name added to our list of supporters on our website.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 31st August 2026 at 3:49pm