Hatherleigh Football Club All Weather Pitch

Help Hatherleigh Football Club and Hatherleigh Youth FC purchase a piece of land on which we plan to build an All Weather Pitch

Who are we?

Hatherleigh Town Football Club and Hatherleigh Youth Football Club offer football for players from 5 years upwards. Our Boys, Girls and Mixed teams play in the North Devon League and the Men's team play in the Exeter & Devon League 1st Division.

The club is over 100 years old and currently has over 170 registered youth players.

We’re a friendly, local club providing opportunities for hundreds of young people to have fun playing football, to make lifelong friendships and to fall in love with the game so that as many of them as possible continue to play once they reach adulthood.

Why are we crowdfunding?

An opportunity has arisen to purchase a piece of land in Hatherleigh which we plan to create an all weather pitch. This facility would be available to both the adult and youth teams for training and matches.

Like many football clubs, long periods of wet weather can mean we struggle to provide pitches for training and matches. During the winter, youth matches are often called off due to waterlogged pitches and all of our teams have to find alternative places to train.

Why do we need an all weather pitch in Hatherleigh?

There are very few good quality all weather training facilities in the area and none in Hatherleigh itself.

This means we have to hire pitches in other locations every week from September to March. Those pitches we are able to hire are often not well-suited to football and tend to be multi-use games style surfaces which can get slippy in colder weather.

The pitch hire fees increase the costs the club has to bear each season, which results in higher membership fees for players and less funds available to invest in our own facilities.

This winter alone, the youth football club is spending over £6,000 hiring pitches in four different locations. Even with this expenditure, it is still likely that some winter matches will have to be rescheduled due to bad weather.

It also means players and parents have to travel further afield every week - some travel almost 50 miles to get to training and back. Some players struggle to get to training at all because their families cannot get them there.

(We hope to be able to build a facility similar to that shown in the photo above, subject to the final design of the pitch being confirmed. This is not an exact representation).

How much do we need to raise?

We need to raise an initial sum of £25,000 which will allow us to purchase the land and cover the professional fees involved. Both parties (the current landowner and the football clubs) are keen to complete the sale as soon as possible.

Once the land is in our ownership, we will need to fundraise for the creation of the new pitch.

How we will spend the money raised

Any money you donate now will be put directly towards the land purchase and the associated solicitor and legal fees. Any money left over after the purchase has been completed will be used to start the process of planning and creating the new pitch.

A community facility for Hatherleigh and the surrounding area

Once constructed, the new all weather pitch will be available for anyone to use. Local sports teams, clubs and groups will be welcome to take advantage of what should be one of the best all weather facilities in the area.

We also know we are not the only football club struggling to find good pitches to train and play on, so when our teams are not using the pitches, other teams in the area should be interested in booking it.

All of which generates an income for the football club and allows us to invest further in football in Hatherleigh for current and future players.

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 and donate to our cause. 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 - then you can do so and donate the funds to the club directly. We can then add your donation to our total.

Thank you!

Thank you for anything you feel you can do or donate. This is the beginning of a really exciting journey - one which should secure the future of football for children in Hatherleigh and the surrounding area for years to come.