Additional Floodlights - Light Up Doric Park

Aim

Provision of additional floodlights - we simply don’t have enough floodlit training space to support our players and coaches.

Who are we?

Trowbridge Rugby Football Club is a place where players of all ages come together to train, grow, and belong. It is also home to other community organisations and sports clubs. Every winter, one challenge becomes impossible to ignore: we simply don’t have enough floodlit training space to support our players, coaches, and expanding sports and community activities.

[upload an image here]

Why are we crowdfunding?

Winter lighting capacity is the single, recurring barrier preventing regular, concurrent training across our user groups, junior, youth and seniors, both male and female. Limited flood lighting forces session cancellations, compresses training timetables, and reduces retention.

Additional floodlighting will:

·        Increase training capacity during winter months

·        Reduce operating costs compared to mobile lighting units

·        Lower the club’s carbon footprint through modern, efficient lighting

This project is more than an infrastructure upgrade: it is a strategic investment to increase participation, improve safety and inclusion, reduce our carbon footprint and operating costs. It will prevent fragmentation and division as elements of the club are forced to seek alternative training locations during winter months. It also secures long‑term community benefit for Trowbridge and surrounding areas.

[upload an image here]

How we’ll spend the money raised

We aim to install six 12‑metre fixed lighting columns, fully compliant with RFU guidelines. 

The projected cost of installation is £44,300 (Ex VAT)

To help  achieve the required funding to complete the project, Sport England have pledged £15,000 of matched funding.   

[upload an image here]

Community impact

Increased playing and training hours

We are installing additional floodlighting to unlock winter training capacity for over 320 players. Currently, limited lighting capacity creates a bottleneck that prevents teams from training regularly and concurrently. This project directly enables our U13–U18 girls' and boys’ teams in addition, our Walking Rugby team (for older adults) to train in safe, consistent slots, moving them from limited and constrained activity in winter to being fully active.

Lack of lighting is a major barrier to participants being able to train safely. For female and older players participation in the winter, safe lighting is essential. The additional lighting removes a safety and "shared space" barrier that currently prevents these priority groups from engaging fully.

The Club aims to eliminate the ‘winter drop-off.’ Many of our younger players and Walking Rugby participants struggle to stay active when sessions are cancelled or cramped due to light.   By increasing capacity, we ensure increased retention through the winter months, create an opportunity to welcome new players from the local community and grow is a sustainable way.

The additional lights will not only benefit those who play contact rugby but also the walking rugby team and the 2 running clubs that use the site.

[upload an image here]

How you can play your part

Every donation — large or small — helps the club keep rugby accessible, safe, and thriving for hundreds of players across juniors, colts, seniors, and women’s rugby. Floodlit space isn’t a luxury; it’s essential for winter training, player development, and maintaining the momentum of a growing club.

By supporting this project, you’re helping us:

·        Keep rugby strong in Trowbridge

·        Provide safe, well‑lit training for all

·        Build a sustainable future for the club

There are three 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. 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!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 8th January 2027 at 9:15am