Marshalling his troops - Pitchcare

Welcome to
Butleigh...
Peter Edmondson, Chairman of the Butleigh Playing
Fields Association, talks about life in rural Somerset
Tucked away behind high, hawthorn
hedgerows there are occasions when
an unsuspecting visitor might miss
the playing field in the quiet, rural,
Somerset village of Butleigh.
Unsurprising, given that the village itself
is somewhat off the beaten track, sitting
in the middle of a triangle of small
market towns - Glastonbury, Street and
Somerton are all within 4/5 miles.
Butleigh is currently home to
approximately 1000 people, living in 300
or so dwellings, a small primary school
(typically 100 pupils), a pub and a village
post office stores.
The village also boasts a proud
sporting tradition, with some
magnificent assets. Just on the outskirts
of the village lies historic Butleigh Court,
a period house now converted into four
apartments, in front of which Butleigh
Cricket Club (two Saturday league teams,
Sunday friendly and three youth teams)
have proudly played for nearly fifty
years. The village rugby club have their
home in nearby Kingweston and, behind
the aforementioned hedgerows, lies the
village playing field, the home of
Butleigh Dynamos FC, and an important
base for other local football clubs at
junior and youth level.
Owned by the Parish Council, and
leased on a peppercorn rent to the
Butleigh Playing Fields Association, the
compact Back Town site boasts two acres
of grass pitch area and an area of hard
standing, suitable for ball-games and
skating, but most commonly used by
youngsters learning to cycle in safety.
The facilities on-site reflect the
committees desire to work with the
existing village sporting bodies to
provide a suitable, pertinent and,
hopefully, sustainable facility.
The last ten years has seen a
determined drive to engage all of the
local sporting clubs to consider using
the playing field for either practice,
games or coaching, with the result that
we are now home to a Kwik-Cricket club
which offers an introduction to cricket
that will lead those who wish to into the
local competitive cricket scene. A further
link with the primary school sees us
coaching football in the winter months,
and probably our biggest success is the
weekly Tag rugby sessions, currently
attracting forty plus visitors on a
Wednesday evening.
Facilities at the site include a full sized
football pitch (which is currently used by
the Dynamos and two youth teams from
nearby Street FC) and an area which can
easily accommodate a 60 x 40 yard mini
soccer pitch alongside. In between these,
we have an artificial cricket wicket with
mobile-net cage. Wheel away the cage
and you get an acceptable cricket facility
for youth games, although one
particularly wet summer saw us hosting a
Butleigh CC game against a touring
team from Harborne CC on a pitch with
And woe betide them if they don’t mop out the
changing rooms - they have been dragged out
of the pub in the past!
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