Until 1976 the club played at Poulton Priory but as the allotments were not used at the time with what is the current Englands playing field leased to two farmers instead, this allotment land was swapped acre for acre with the Priory land with Englands then becoming home to the cricket & football clubs. The steeple of the village church next to Englands is reflected in our club crest. The playing field extends to nearly eight acres with a further 4 acres over a fence to the side remaining as agricutural land/meadows.
In 1997 an agreement was made with the Playing Field & Allotment Charity (PFAC) who run Englands on behalf of the Charities Commission to build a new pavilion, replacing a venerable red wooden. This was achieved through the vision and work of Club President Geoff Chapman who project managed and raised funds for the builds. Geoff sourced financial contibutions from numerous sources and with significant additional funds raised by the cricket club, the pavilion was built and opened on 5th July 2008. At the time total fundraising was roughly £900,000 by this point with this met by the cricket club and invested into the playing facility at Englands.
Geoff was President through until his death in 2012 at which point his wife, Rosemarie took on the mantle, leading us through to her retirement from the role in 2022. The Chapmans oversaw a period of incredible growth and achievement for the club and we have been incredibly lucky to have them involved.
The ground has a history of being one of the best in the area winning multiple awards in years gone by under the care and managment of an endless list of volunteers including but not limited to. Pat Shaw, Jim Nunn, Wayne Tinson, Mark Wright, Neil Shaw, Andy James, Brian Cooper and more recently Graham Clarke & Cliff Cutts. We want to restore the pitch to glory and have begun a multi year investment in this.
For 23 of the last 25 years, Dave Dunn has been our Chairman, pouring every he has been able to into the growth of a club, his passion on the pitch only surpassed by his drive and desire for growth off it. There is no way we can list out Chairman's achievements and contributions on this page but in due course. We'll give it a go. A new structure and management team is on the way for 2023.
The achievement of grants has largely due to the fact that Poulton has for several decades offered coaching to local children, maintaining a youth section of well over 120 for several decades from Under 5s through to Under 19s. In 2008, the cricket club also achieved early Sport England recognition, first gaining Clubmark accreditation holding it right up until 2019. Another club legend, Simon Gordon-Walker had run this and much of the background for well over a decade, developing our youth section into county beaters and starting the modern day Gloucestershire Youth League. Much of the administrative work Simon did remains in place today. Away from cricket, he raised funds for a charity called Frank Water and for the 2022 season we decided to carry the Charity's logo on our shirts in his memory, with one Sunday each season dedicated to this and organised by his son Jamie. Rather than peter out with each season, the event grows from strength to strength, testament to Simon's legacy.
Management of the Pavilion is delegated by PFAC to what was known as the Poulton Sports Committee, now the Englands Management Comittee (EMC), something Simon also ran when it was launched. This comprisies members of the village and representatives of both the cricket and football clubs. Typically the Treasurer of the cricket club is also the Treasurer of the EMC. All funds taken across the bar of the pavilion go into the seperate finances of the pavilion to cover maintenance and running costs of not just the pavilion but general upkeep of the Englands playing field as well.
