Unveiling a New Home for Wimborne Town FC

Working with our group partners S&C Slatter, we constructed two Sport England Type 5 pitches for the club: one for stadium use, the other for training and community use.

Releasing land value through football club relocation

Established in 1878, Wimborne Town FC is a FA Chartered Standard club, currently playing in the Southern League Premier Division South.

Property developer Wyatt Homes approached the club with the prospect of relocating their existing football club to a brand new, purpose built facility, all paid for by the purchase of the club’s Cuthbury ground in Wimborne for residential development.

The existing ground will be replaced with new houses as part of a wider housing initiative around Wimborne, funding the relocation of the club to a new purpose-built site at Parmiter Drive. The new facilities will provide Wimborne Town FC with a stunning new home to support the growth of football in the club and local area for years to come.

A Slatter Group Effort

The project has benefitted from the combined expertise of White Horse Contractors and our group partners, S&C Slatter. S&C Slatter’s dedicated design & planning team produced the site-wide layout and design to The FA’s Sports Ground Grading C specification, suitable for the National League System.

White Horse Contractor’s experienced technical team, including in-house engineers and CAD specialists, produced a full design specification for the two natural turf pitches to Sport England Type 5, with the project delivered by our skilled site teams and dedicated contracts manager.

A complete works package was produced comprising of earthworks, drainage and attenuation tank installation, soil improvements and amelioration, and secondary drainage installation. Our soil specialists undertook cultivation and seeding works, with additional delivery of ancillary footpaths, floodlights and fencing.

Overcoming problems with innovative solutions

Project works commenced in September 2019, but with poor weather in Autumn and Winter, White Horse Contractors were unable to return to site until April 2020, leaving the pitches with a drastically reduced growing in period.

Rather than delay the project, we utilised our our custom-built specialist mobile irrigation system to cut the growing in timeframe down by 50%. Our dedicated maintenance supervisor oversaw this growing in process to ensure peace of mind for the client, ultimately enabling us to deliver the pitches on time, whilst achieving and exceeding the PQS standards set out at the beginning of the project.

This isn’t the end of Wimborne FC’s redevelopment either, with S&C Slatter set to commence works on a brand new 3G training pitch at the club in the coming months, with the pitches set to benefit not only the club but the local community.

Club Patron Harry Redknapp has already given his seal of approval, declaring the new facility “fantastic” on his visit earlier this year. With new players signed on for the 2019/20 season, we’re thrilled to complete our phase of works, excited to watch the Magpie’s move from strength to strength in their new home for the season to come!