Improving Drainage at The Beaconsfield

Who Are We?

Hailsham Town FC are the Senior football club for Hailsham, East Sussex.

Founded in 1885, Hailsham Town have had a long and successful history in Sussex football, winning many local competitions as well as reaching the Fifth Round of the FA Vase during the 1988/89 Season.

The Stringers are a Community Sports Club running teams at Senior, Under 23, Under 18 and Veterans levels along with a thriving junior section consisting of over 100 children between 5 and 12 years of age. As a community club we are proud to share our pitch with other locally based teams and share our well equipped Clubhouse with other local sports clubs. In addition to providing the facility to local organisations and charities for fund raising events the club also provide a much need venue to the community for weddings and parties.

How it should be - The Beaconsfield looking glorious under the late summer skies

What's the problem?

Our home, The Beaconsfield, has been used for football for over 100 years, and has been the home for the town club for over half a century. Since those early days many improvements to the ground and the surrounding areas, and now possess a seated spectator stand, well appointed clubhouse, hardstanding on three sides of the ground and refreshment facilities. 

The BIG issue is that the ground is prone to flooding which severely hinders the utilisation of the pitch. This severely affects our ambitions to create the community atmosphere and ownership to which the club is striving to achieve and whilst the club have received great support from Hailsham Town Council in recent months, dredging perimeter drainage ditches to provide water run-off, we need to go much further and improve the pitch drainage, with the additional of two land drains under the areas of the pitch most frequently affected by heavy rainfall.

(Flooding March 2020)

What are you doing about it already?

Thanks to the Football Foundation, we have recently been awarded a £1,500 grant for pitch maintenance work. Our volunteer ground staff are working hard to maintain and improve what we have, but by adding proper drainage to the now cleared drainage ditch, we believe that this will improve water run-off from the playing surface during periods of heavy rainfall, meaning less postponed matches, more utilisation by the community, a better playing surface and ultimately a better facility for the residents of the town to enjoy watching us perform on. 

Unfortunately, in the current environment funding for grants for subsidising the cost of the drainage work have been redirected to COVID related initiatives resulting in the football club having to raise and provide the total cost for the work required.

Volunteers working on the pitch 

What Do You Want?

We hope to raise £3,000 towards the cost of the new land drains - these will run under the pitch and provide additional drainage channels on the worst affected areas of the playing surface. This work will be carried out by a local company providing welcome support to the local economy in the current climate. In addition, any outstanding money raised from the initiative will be used for refurbishment and redecoration of our clubhouse.

Hailsham Town Football Club are committed to providing a community facility for the use of the whole local community and sports club maximising pitch utilisation by young and old alike. The main obstacle to achieving our goal currently is the facility. This initiative is a major step towards helping us achieve our dream. Any assistance that you can provide large or small towards reaching our target is greatly appreciated and as a token of our gratitude we are offering a reward for each donation made.

Thank you for your support - COME ON YOU STRINGERS!