The Orford Recreation Ground has a full size and a half size football pitch, tennis courts, an outside gym, a zip wire, a children’s play area and a pavilion.
The Recreation Ground Charity worked closely with the Sports and Recreation Club to determine the most effective way to improve the Pavilion on the Recreation Ground. They surveyed the local community to identify what they would like and looked at various options including a purpose built replacement, a modular timber replacement and a full refurbishment of the existing structure. The cost of these options varied between £300,000 for a design and build, £180,000 for a modular timber pavilion down to £82,500 for a thorough refurbishment of the existing building.
A detailed inspection of the existing structure showed that the timber frame of the original building was in good condition which reflects its early history as an MoD building. The block extension which houses the changing rooms was also in good condition under the deteriorating cladding. This offered a sound framework on which to develop an improved community building at a reasonable cost.
It was decided to refurbish and reconfigure the Recreation Ground Pavilion in order to enable the building to continue to provide essential recreational facilities for the village community. The reconfiguration of the internal space provides greater scope for a wider cross section of the community to enjoy the benefits of a single community centre with local access to formal and informal sports and social amenities.
The external timber cladding was replaced with a proprietary fibre concrete product that looks like timber cladding but is fire, moisture, rot and pest resistant and is coated in a hardwearing coloured surface. The chosen colour is Mountain Sage.
The community demonstrated that it was fully behind the project by supporting the local fundraising efforts of the committee and offering volunteer help for many of the tasks associated with the restoration of the existing building. These efforts and a significant contribution from the New Orford Town Trust meant that the refurbishment work began Monday 6th July 2015.
The refurbishment is now complete and the pavilion is a warm and cosy building.
