Nuneaton Old Edwardians Facilities Development

Aim: As league champions last season and to prepare for our new challenge, we have commenced several projects to develop our on-site facilities.

Who are we?

A club steeped in history, Nuneaton Old Edwardians RFC was founded in 1910. 112 years have elapsed since our inception and while times may have changed the layout of the club, the faces of those members we call a part of our family and the rugby itself has not changed, alongside our commitment to strive for excellence. 

We have now completed our first five year journey to developing every aspect of our club, this has included the development and growth of our Mini+Junior Academy, the organisation of community events to support the local area, the forging of postive relatioships with local sports clubs, the appointment of high quality coaches including Leicester Tigers Player, Jimmy Gopperth. This has all culminated in the incredible year of achievements both on and off the field last year.

We now set our sights on the next five years for our club with a new committe in post and six out of nine of them being current players. A fresh vision is emerging of how Nuneaton Old Edwardians can develop further in being a prominent organisation in supporting the wellbeing of people in the local area.

As a club our Mini+Juniors Academy is also thriving and is a key element of our vision to develop our club in the future, but also to support with our impact on the community, with a significant number of young people training and pulling on the red and white stripes weekly. 

Community impact

Since emerging from the pandemic we have also resumed our role as hub in the community for sport through continuing to develop the mutually beneficial relationships with Nuneaton Cricket Club, Weddington Football Club and Cleaver Squash Club. Always with developments in mind, we have appointment a dedicated Club House Manager, who is proactive and keen to continue to forge these positive relationships with community and develop our offer.

We also venture outside of the world of sport operating a function room for a variety of events and special occasions, such as our Queens Jubilee Event (which is advertised below) and our Summer Festival.

We are always looking to develop our impact in the community and we have further plans to adapt our clubhouse to accomodate a wider array of events, such as a dedicated seminar/meeting space for local businesses.

Why are we crowdfunding? How will we spend funds raised?

It goes without saying that everybody has found things challenging through the pandemic and with people from all walks have life, having to pull together to support eachother.

This is an outlook that we hold very dear now, as without the support of our own community and volunteers we would likely not be operating at the same capacity we have described above or have the aspiration to develop further. That is why, we are reaching out to our community to support us in our vision to improve the impact that Nuneaton Old Edwardians can have in our community and on the rugby field.

We have three key projects we view as immediate developments that, with the support of our community, we will be able to accomplish through to summer months. As these plans have been subject to significant planning over the course of the year, we also have a long-term vision that our crowdfunding campaign will support with, which involves further development and extension of our facilties, as well as several community projects.

1. Refurbishment of Shower + Changing Room Facilities

2. Development of Gym Facility

3. Improvement of Physiotherapy Facilties

Based on the success of the campaign and through the support of sport england with our 'spaces' developments we feel that three additional developments are related to our vision for the club in the coming year and we see the possibility of these being completed as aditional projects:

4. Refurbishment of Clubhouse: 

We would aim to repaint the club house, install new flooring, update technology and the bar itself.

5. Mini + Junior Developement

As our facilities develop further and our crowd grows, we will be able to develop the M+J's infrastructure to allow further growth. 

6. Women's Rugby (including the relaunch of our Inner Warrior Girls Rugby Programme which was significantly impacted by the pandemic).

We operated an extremely succesful ladies training sessions pre-pandemic through the RFU Inner Warrior Iniative. Based on the growth of our female membership base we see this as an opportunity moving forward.

7.  Future Extension of Club (Including Access Ramp, Spectator Railings and Balcony/Seating Extension as shown below)

As additional spaces that can be support with the funds raised, to improve our accesibility we will install an access ramp to the club house. We also envisage short-term developments being made to our pitch with improve spectator railings, seating and an extensive of our ever popular pitchside terrace.

How our project will be United by Birmingham 2022

All of the above impacts of our crowdfunding campaign would not be possible without one key motivating factor. That is the fantastic guidance and support that Sport England have provided in promoting their 'Places + Spaces' fund. This fund makes awards of up to £10,000 using National Lottery funding, from a pot of £7 million, to help community sport and physical activity groups create or improve facilities in their local area. This fund is something we are looking to utilise in supporting our vision and in the legacy of the commenwealth games, something we are exploring our own opportunities to become involved in.

Our entire development is inspired by the legacy being left by the commonwealth games coming to Birmingham. As a club at the heart of our community, we believe in providing high quality opportunities for people from all walks of life to engage in sports and physical activity. 

We believe this closely alligns with the ethos of the commonwealth games and we feel as if we can be a part of this and we are already doing the following to support the games and its legacy:

1. Promoted the commonwealth games within our club with a large number of our members attending a variety of different sporting events. 

2. Currently in the process of scheduling opportunities for local residents to come and watch the games at our club, with plans to build additional opportunities for people to participate in sport and physical activity whilst the games are broadcast. 

3. To further align ourselves with the 'United By Birmingham 2022' we will be permanently commerating this through naming our development the 'United By Birmingham Gym' including signage in a prominent area of it.

4. Provide further opportunities for the community to particiapte in sport and physical activity in the future. Our initial plans see us introducing this with a focus centered around Olympic Weightlifting and other activities such as Cross-Fit, Yoga and Pilates.

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. Join us to celebrate the Queens Jubilee, a fun day out for all the family.