Welcome to Butleigh...
Peter Edmondson, Chairman of the Butleigh Playing Fields Association, talks about life in rural Somerset
T
ucked away behind high, hawthorn hedgerows there are occasions when an unsuspecting visitor might miss the playing field in the quiet, rural, Somerset village of Butleigh. Unsurprising, given that the village itself is somewhat off the beaten track, sitting in the middle of a triangle of small market towns - Glastonbury, Street and Somerton are all within 4/5 miles. Butleigh is currently home to
approximately 1000 people, living in 300 or so dwellings, a small primary school (typically 100 pupils), a pub and a village post office stores.
The village also boasts a proud sporting tradition, with some magnificent assets. Just on the outskirts of the village lies historic Butleigh Court, a period house now converted into four apartments, in front of which Butleigh Cricket Club (two Saturday league teams, Sunday friendly and three youth teams) have proudly played for nearly fifty
years. The village rugby club have their home in nearby Kingweston and, behind the aforementioned hedgerows, lies the village playing field, the home of Butleigh Dynamos FC, and an important base for other local football clubs at junior and youth level. Owned by the Parish Council, and leased on a peppercorn rent to the Butleigh Playing Fields Association, the compact Back Town site boasts two acres of grass pitch area and an area of hard standing, suitable for ball-games and skating, but most commonly used by youngsters learning to cycle in safety. The facilities on-site reflect the committees desire to work with the existing village sporting bodies to provide a suitable, pertinent and, hopefully, sustainable facility. The last ten years has seen a determined drive to engage all of the local sporting clubs to consider using the playing field for either practice,
games or coaching, with the result that we are now home to a Kwik-Cricket club which offers an introduction to cricket that will lead those who wish to into the local competitive cricket scene. A further link with the primary school sees us coaching football in the winter months, and probably our biggest success is the weekly Tag rugby sessions, currently attracting forty plus visitors on a Wednesday evening. Facilities at the site include a full sized football pitch (which is currently used by the Dynamos and two youth teams from nearby Street FC) and an area which can easily accommodate a 60 x 40 yard mini soccer pitch alongside. In between these, we have an artificial cricket wicket with mobile-net cage. Wheel away the cage and you get an acceptable cricket facility for youth games, although one particularly wet summer saw us hosting a Butleigh CC game against a touring team from Harborne CC on a pitch with
And woe betide them if they don’t mop out the changing rooms - they have been dragged out of the pub in the past!
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