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B
ack in 1937, when Crowborough Rugby Football Club played its first-ever game, the Blue Anchor pub doubled as clubhouse and changing rooms.
Fast-forward 75 years and the amateur East Sussex club has
just thrown open the doors of its new £650,000 purpose-built clubhouse – a facility that is not only a huge boost to local rugby but is also set to become a real community asset. The building is a long-overdue replacement for the old club-
house, which was built in 1962 and which was only supposed to have a lifespan of 20 years. A £100,000 Rugby Football Foundation loan, a £90,000 Rugby Football Union grant, £150,000 from the Social Enterprise Loan Fund and five years of fundraising provided the cash, but there were also planning challenges to overcome. That’s because Crowborough’s Steel Cross ground sits in an
Top: The new Crowborough clubhouse with viewing balcony Bottom: Construction of the new clubhouse next to the old one
officially designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – pretty farmland and woods that surround Crowborough itself and nearby Tunbridge Wells. Like a number of people involved with the clubhouse redevel-
opment, project architect David Haslam has close links with Crowborough RFC – he’s a regular spectator at matches and his grandson has played for the club at junior level.
He explains: “The planning authorities decided they wanted
something that wouldn’t look out of place in the countryside. It had to look agricultural – at least from a distance. However, the last thing the rugby club wanted was something that looked like a chicken shack, and that was actually part of the club’s brief to me.” So a balance had to be struck. Haslam's architectural solution
is essentially a traditional sports pavilion but built with a more modern approach.
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