Major funding

The pavilion and playground were out of date and not fit for purpose. The pavilion required decent changing rooms, showers, heating and up to date facilities. The pavilion was extended to provide more space for indoor sport activities such as table tennis and carpet bowls.

The cricket, tennis and football teams, will now be able to host more home games and encourage local children to play. The Inkpen Primary School use the playing field for their sporting activities and science projects every week and they hold their annual sports day at the playing field.

Falkland Cricket Club is a major community cricket club and community facility for West Berkshire and Wash Common. It plays a vital role in the promotion and development of recreational cricket in the area. The Club is also one of the three premier grounds used by Berkshire County Cricket for its Minor County matches.

The Cricket Club has a thriving membership with a range of adult, junior, female and disabled cricket teams.  The pavilion is also home to the Bowlers Arms and regularly hosts a number of local community groups.  The pavilion is also used for birthday parties, wakes and other receptions by the local Wash Common community.

The pavilion was in a poor state of repair having been built in 1974 from four pre-fabricated huts as a temporary structure and despite repairs by volunteers the building was beyond economical repair.  The roof leaked and the changing facilities did not meet current ECB specifications.

In 2015 Falkland Cricket Club commenced fundraising to replace the cricket pavilion and work commenced in September 2018.  The total project cost is over £1million and Greenham Trust provided £200k in matched funding towards this local community project. We are sure you will agree the brand new pavilion is a huge improvement and will be enjoyed by the players and local community for decades to come.

The project is to remove the existing 100-year-old wood and tin building and replace it with a modern, efficient, multi-use headquarters that can be used for Scouting and allow them to share the space with the wider community. Phase one will be working with architects Morse-Webb to finalise the design, complete the planning application process, and all required surveys, e.g. arboreal, asbestos, archaeological, protected species etc and undertake tendering for the construction.

Full Planning Permission has been granted to build a new Scout hut on land purchased from Falkland Cricket Club. The existing hut at Battery End will be sold to part-fund the construction. The land comes with a woodland area which will be used for camping, education, learning and exploring! 120 hedge saplings have already been planted to enhance biodiversity.

The Rosemary Appeal is named after Rosemary Rooke, who donated land to the Newbury and Thatcham Hospital building Trust (NTHBT) in her will. The land was used to build the West Berkshire Community Hospital.

The Rosemary Appeal is aiming to enhance our local community medical care by raising £4.5m to build The Rosemary Centre at the hospital and also to fund both the staff and equipment it will need.

The new Centre will transform the lives of patients and their carers in West Berkshire, saving hours of discomfortable travel to receive regular treatment from hospitals in Reading, Oxford, Swindon and even further afield in Southampton and London.

Facilites at the Rosemary Centre will include:

• Renal Dialysis
• Day Therapy Unit
• Community Chemotheraphy
• IV Therapy
• CT Scanner

The Trust originally pledged to match fund all public and corporate donations to the Rosemary Appeal made through The Good Exchange up to £5,000 per donation, and up to a total of £1m.  in 2018 the Trust awarded a further £500,000 in match funding to the project.

Newbury Cricket Club is currently seeking funding to redevelop its existing pavilion. They are looking to complete an essential overhaul of the Pavilion to bring it up to an acceptable standard for members and community use: This will include: Complete overhaul of external/interior of the clubhouse, Installation of ladies changing & showering facilities, Installation of a disabled toilet, A new pitched roof, New flooring, Electrical works, Installation of hot water and heating system.

Once complete this will enable a future partnership with Loose Ends that will have use of the building on a daily basis all year round.

West Berkshire Museum reopened its doors, with the help of £184,687 in grants from the Trust.

The funding from the Trust for the refurbishment of the museum and the preservation of its two historic buildings came in the form of two grants in 2012 and 2014 totalling £181,696. A further £2,991 was paid in matched funding for public donations on the Trust’s fundraising website – Find Me A Grant, which has since been upgraded to The Good Exchange.com

West Berkshire Executive Councillor, Hilary Cole, said: “Although the bulk of the funding came from the Heritage Lottery Fund, a big thank you is due to Greenham Trust for their generous contribution of more than £180,000, and to the Headley Trust for their £40,000. Many thanks, too, to the museum ‘Friends’ who raised contributions from the Englefield Charitable Trust, the Gerald Palmer Eling Trust, the Sackler Trust, and the Colefax Trust. Newbury Building Society also contributed £150.”

West Berkshire Council says it is delighted at public reaction to the new museum. Opening for a ‘soft launch’ on August bank holiday, it had 1,541 visitors in its first week, and there has been a steady flow since then.

The historic cloth hall and corn stores, in which the museum is housed, have been restored and linked by a new building, allowing not only the total exhibition area to increase by a third but also a complete refurbishment of the display space as well as improved visitor facilities and children’s activities. Staff have also been working on the learning opportunities that the new museum creates for local schools.