Maintenance Works 2026
January 2026 – April 2026
Upfront: A huge thanks to everybody who has helped out with this project over the past few months, it has been an immense undertaking, lots of hard work, lots of early mornings and long days, with a lot of aching muscles throughout the process but I hope everybody agrees; that the resulting area we have created will be of immense benefit to the club going forward.
A huge thanks to the stalwarts of this project; Peter Almond, Ken Greenhall, Richard Brown, Stuart Gee, Dave Wallace and Norman Robinson, ably assisted by Dave Bunyan, Nick Cook, Viv Dindol, Pete French, Dave Head, Lester Davis, Graham Smith, Martyn Kemm & Martin Parker. Without the hugely valuable help of volunteers, this type of project would be unachievable. A special thanks to our “Tea Boy”; Ken Pymm for tirelessly coming down most days to make us refreshments and keep us all going, and to Pete French for filling in when Ken couldn’t make it down. Thanks to Sandra for the hot cross buns! 😋
Pete Almond & John Lonergan had discussions early on with the football club over the boundary location, with a favourable outcome for the Bowls club. The position of the new fence was agreed and work began in early January to stake out the boundary and to remove the back half of the hedge in order to accommodate the new fence position.
A number of club members came to help with the removal and shredding of the hedge, with much of the waste material being removed from site by Ken Greenhall and Richard Brown, to be used at the allotments in Old Stratford.
John submitted a Hedge Removal Notice with the planning department and pursued the application through to a successful conclusion, with full written permission (with a two year expiry) being granted by the 9th of March.
The remaining hedge was removed by early March and erection of the new fence was completed shortly afterwards. Work then commenced on building the pergola framework, fitting the drains and laying the new concrete base.
The barbecue was resurrected, it had a thorough jet wash and clean-out by Norman Robinson, Carol purchased a new cover, Peter Almond made some alterations to the barbeque to fit it into the allocated space and it was used in anger for the first time in quite a while for the official opening of the Pergola on Friday 28th August 2026.
At this point (22nd September 2026) works that remain to be done are Dave Wallace to route an electrical supply round to the area in order for us to then permanently power the string lighting now installed. The Green Bar counter also needs some finishing off.
These are most of the photos and videos taken by various people throughout the process so far, with no doubt more to come before the project is finished.
Now the 2026 season is drawing to a close, the remaining hedge will be removed starting early October and a new section of fence will be erected in its place. This new section of fence will be slightly recessed and will house the sponsorship advertising hoardings we hope to populate in the future.
Arrival of material to complete the fencing once the remaining hedge is removed.
Videos taken during the earlier part of the project.