Wark Sports  Club and Recereational Charity is open to all members of the public. We do not have a membership rule. We have football and cricket pitches, 2 hard tennis courts, a basketball court, a five-a-side pitch, childrens playground and skateboard park. The clubhouse has a large function room which can be rented out for private events, a live music licence and small stage, a licensed bar and pleasant seating areas. Ther is a large car park to the front of the club.

Refurbishment Plans

The club was built in the early 1960’s and the unstinting generosity of Wark villagers has kept it standing for more than 40 years. However, the Committe have now decided that, subject to achieving the required level of funding, extensive renovation work is required over the next 2 years. This includes repairing/replacing the roof, completely renovating the exterior fabric and internal redevelopment. We currently use LPG to heat the club and this is very expensive, so we will be looking at new heating systems, possibly including sloar panels and Ground Source Heat Pumps.

Over the last two months we have been collecting quotations from as many local firms as possible to carry out this work. We now have a fairly good idea of what this work will cost and are busy preparing to bid to several funding agencies to see if we can raise enough cash through grants to complete the renovation.

All of the funding agencies we are approaching will expect us to show that we have made best use of local expertise and business opportunities. This could  take several forms;

  1. volunteering - to dig trenches, paint, clean up and carry out essentially labour based activities.
  2. donating – to cut costs we will be contacting local businesses to see if they can donate materials or equipment to complete the work. This could be tins of paint, timber, insulation, other construction materials or equipment.
  3. fundraising –   The Club is a community asset open to all. We can provide facilities for private parties, disco’s, live bands and are open to any suggestion to raise much needed cash and maximise the use of the club. If you have any ideas for fundraising events, or simply want to have your party at the club, please contact us through the Committee members (details below) or leave a message at the village Post Office.   Village Survey Before we begin the refurbishment we need to know what the village thinks about the sports club. Is it a valued comunity asset, would you like it to remain active, what could we do to improve use of the club? To get this information, the committee will be carrying out a survey of the entire village over the first 2-3 weeks or July. The survey leaflets will be posted through letterboxes or can be collected from the Post Office. Please return all completed forms to the sealed box in the Post Office by the return date (July 20th).

 

Update on Refurbishment, November 2009

The reopening of the sports club on Saturday14th November 2009 went as planned with funders, committee, supporters and contractors all there to help celebrate the fact that the club is once again fit for the future.  Mrs. Allgood officially reopened the club and was very interested to hear that thanks to the ground source heat pump, the energy bills for the club have been reduced by about 75-80%.  Having reached this milestone, the committee is already thinking about what to do next.  Internally the building could do with some changes too and the group is also thinking about what other renewables they might include to give the club an income from selling electricity to the grid, something that is set to become much easier during next year.  For the next few months however, they can take a bit of a breather and enjoy the success so far!