Wheathampstead Wanderers Football Club (WWFC) was formed in 1990 by a small group of families from the village to promote and support youth football for the benefit of children and young people in Wheathampstead and surrounding areas. WWFC now provides football for over 600 children and teenagers across 49 teams. 90% of the children are from Wheathampstead, Harpenden and St Albans. In total they have 160 volunteers delivering 25,000 hours of community contribution each year. The club also welcomes 12,000 youth players and visitors to the site each year, many of whom travel up to an hour to play games at the site.

The ethos of the founder members remains. A desire to create a positive environment based on mutual respect, a sense of fair play and good sportsmanship, rather than a “win-at-all-costs” attitude. Magnanimous in victory and dignified in defeat. Ensuring young players from all backgrounds have an equal opportunity to play football is key to WWFC. One of the districts in Wheathampstead is in the top third nationally for income deprivation and 21.8% of children live in poverty. Annual player fees at the club are set at some of the lowest in the area to ensure they don’t provide a significant barrier to participation.

In addition, the club operates a hardship fund which provides free football for U6s and reduced fees for the U7s. Despite continued success of the club on the pitch, WWFC are the only large club in the area without permanent facilities for welfare and first aid, shelter, sanitation, refreshment and education for youth players and coaches. Their current facilities consist of just 3 portaloos.

WWFC approached Hertfordshire Community Foundation to help receive funding to contribute towards their football pavilion development project, in partnership with Wheathampstead Parish Council and with the support of the Football Association and the Football Foundation.

The new pavilion will include changing facilities, a club training room, toilets (with disabled access) and a kitchen, for serving hot and cold refreshments on match days. The outside parking area will also be redesigned to accommodate 130 spaces (an increase from the current 100 spaces).

After a period of waiting, the lease was finally agreed between Hertfordshire County Council, who own the land, and Wheathampstead Parish Council. During this period however, total project costs increased from approximately £460,000 to nearly £600,000, largely caused by the huge increases in construction costs. Following meetings with the Football Foundation, construction of the pavilion was delayed even further whilst WWFC tried to attract further grants to help with the project.

Despite the delays and at times some uncertainty about the project even taking place, construction is now fully underway at Butterfield Road. All the players, staff and parents are fully looking forward to making the pavilion their new home.

We are delighted that our grant of £10,000 will help towards the construction of the pavilion, which will provide a huge boost in facilities for such a fantastic community club. A lot of hard work has gone into the project from many people at the club. We are very excited to get down to Wheathampstead to see the completion of the project.

You can find out more about WWFC by visiting their website here