What are we fundraising for?
Wedgwood Football Club are hoping to undertake a major pitch renovation project in preparation for the 2025/2026 season. The renovation would include a range of renovation work on the site in Barlaston to improve the playing surface and surrounding areas.
These renovations will include:
1. Groundworks to clear and remodel site perimeter ditch to help site more effectively drain excess water.
2. Installation of a 50-meter land drain in the unused area of the site that is too wet to use most of the year, allowing this area to be utilised as part of the playing/training/warmup areas.
3. Flattening a large proportion of the playing surface and surrounding warm up and training areas that are badly affected by undulating waves and bumps.
4. Seeding, top dressing and fertilising the newly flattened areas.
You can see the scale of the area in the image below, we are planning on renovating the entire area inside the yellow box.
Why are we doing it?
Whist we have a beautifully located site at Wedgwood, the football pitches have not had regular maintenance or renovation for several years which has led to the pitches requiring improvement to drainage to ensure we can consistently host football matches throughout the season for our junior sides and senior team.
The entire perimeter ditch has become overgrown and is no longer effectively helping the rainwater that falls onto the pitches drain away.
The image above shows how overgrown the perimeter ditch has become. The image below shows how water is holding in parts of the ditch due to parts becoming full up with leaves, silt and soil over a number of years.
Due to the poor site drainage, in the winter months, large areas of the playing surface become heavily waterlogged and result in pitch conditions that are either unplayable, forcing games to be postponed or extremely muddy which is less than idea for playing football on, especially for our younger age groups.
Flattening of the playing areas and surround areas, meaning the pitches can be marked out in a variety of ways across the site, meaning we can reconfigure the layout/position of the pitches to ensure the site is not overused in one area.
The improvement to the surrounding areas also means, these areas can be used by teams for training and pre-match warming up, reducing excessive cutting up and damage to the main playing areas.
Originally used as farm land, vast parts of the pitches are still affected from originally ploughing the areas as ridge and furrow for agriculture use. Removal of the large waves and undulation on areas of the site will also make those areas safer for players when running at speed and help the ball to be passed along the ground properly and not bouncing around sporadically.
The improvement to the site will allow the football club to continue to provide and expand football development opportunities throughout the age groups and ensure we can continue to support as many people as possible enjoy football.
How will we do it?
Stage 1: Removal of the tree overgrowth around the perimeter ditch and extraction of large tree stumps and roots. Remodelling of the drainage ditch to ensure the water runs directly off the playing surface down into the ditch. Installation of the land drain running down the side/corner of the site into the draining ditch.
Stage 2: Flattening of the playing surfaces and surrounding areas.
Stage 3: Seeding of all flattened areas and top dressing with approximately 200 tones of topsoil.
Stage 4: Careful cutting, fertilisation and over-seeding of the site when the grass has regrown.
When will it happen?
Stage 1 will start mid-April with Stage 2-4 taking place from May onwards. The site will be fully ready for use during the 2025/2026 season for all Wedgwood teams.
What will the total cost of the project be?
With your help are aiming to raise £3500.00 through this Crowdfunding campaign to significantly contribute towards an overall project cost of £11,000. The football club have already pledged £6000.00 towards the project and a football funday is planned at the club to also do some fundraising for the project.
How you can play your part and help us?
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!