Devon Cricket Board - Heathcoat £1/2m rebuild project hit by bad weather

Heathcoat £1/2m rebuild project hit by bad weather

Going up! Work under way on Heathcoat's new pavilion

HEATHCOAT chairman John Smith is confident the new £500,000 pavilion at Knightshayes will be ready for the start of the new season despite the foul weather this winter.
The 90-year-old timber building overlooking the ground was pulled down at the end of last season ready for the new pavilion to go up.
It had cost six shillings less than £420 to build so no one could complain it had not been value for money!
A last-minute funding glitch delayed the start of construction work by almost a month, which meant the roof wasn’t on by Christmas as planned.
The roof should be on by mid-January and then work will speed up to get the project finished before the new season starts.
Smith, a construction engineer who is project managing the build, said finishing on time is achievable, but will be a tall order.
“Clearly we have a mountain to climb in order to be ready for the 2013 campaign, but energy levels and enthusiasm are still very high,” said Smith.
“The level of voluntary commitment is ever increasing and with a fair wind and lots of midnight oil we are determined to be ready by early April 2013.”
“After the wettest autumn any of us can remember, progress was been severely hindered and the target of being under a roof by Christmas was not been achieved.
“On a positive note we have managed to install the sewage treatment plant and the pitch irrigation system – I wonder if we will ever need it?
“Ground works are effectively suspended just now as the land is totally saturated and we shall have to wait for drier weather.”
Heathcoat’s landlords are the National Trust, who have been very hands-on throughout the design stage and construction work.
The new pavilion has a timber frame constructed largely from wood grown on the Knighshayes estate.
“Collaborative working with the National Trust has been the keynote for the success of the project to date,” said Smith.
“Not only have the National Trust provided a generous lease framework that will ensure cricket is played at Knightshayes in perpetuity, they have also provided all the timber for the structural frame free of charge.
“All of us at the club are stunned by the elegance and technical achievement of the structural timber frame.
“Just two months ago most of the trees from which it is formed were standing in the forest at Knightshayes and still in leaf!
“The management group are indebted to Dan Franklin of Woodenways for his vision and sheer determination to meet his targets, whilst never compromising the quality and design of the finished frame.”
Finding £500,000 at any time is not easy, never mind in the middle of a recession.
Heathcoat have a funding line to the ECB for 18 per cent of the cost and a further 50 per cent is coming from waste-disposal company Viridor through its landfill communities fund.
The club and the local community are finding the balance of 32 per cent. This is made up of loans, a grant from the Heathcoat Trust, voluntary labour and professional input provided free of charge.
A computer-generated image of what the new pavilion will look like

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