Bilsdon Park Development Project

Enhancing the home of Hessle Rangers CIC creating an environment providing football, fun and healthy activity for the local community.

In the summer of 2016, Hessle Rangers Football Club started a project 40-years in the making – establishing a home base. Established in 1976, Hessle Rangers currently has 35 teams and over 500 members – boys, girls, men and women.

A home base that the club can maintain and invest in will ensure the sustainability of the club and allow it to grow further, ensuring there are opportunities to play football for boys and girls and men and women of all ages and abilities who want to play competitively or socially.

The home of Hessle Rangers will be an environment providing fun and healthy activity for the local community and the wider area.

The club have already raised in excess of £50,000 through fundraising events, some of which has already been used to achieve two of our three main plans for the site and also on the development project with regards to planning documents and planning application. All funding raised will be paid into our development bank account and used 100% for the funding of the building.

Problem Statement

The club’s facilities have not kept pace with our growth, particularly our massive strides in girl’s football. We have 35 teams of all ages, as well as introductory football sessions for young boys and girls. To accommodate these players, coaches, volunteers, referees, and spectators, we have one toilet cabin, with only one female toilet, and no changing facilities. We have a temporary kitchen and have to hold meetings in a local pub. It is imperative for the well-being of the children and the long-term development of the club that we build a space for our players to thrive and our community to come together.

Hessle Rangers are the long-term leaseholders of the designated sports pitches on the site of the former Hessle High Lower School. The site hosts hundreds of games of football and hundreds of hours of training and other activity every year.

We will improve the facility with a pavilion housing changing rooms for players and officials, WC facilities, meeting and learning spaces and the ability to cater for the users of the site. Planning permission has already been attained for the new building!

Our Outcomes

Hessle Rangers FC is a community asset that delivers healthy activity to players from the 4 year olds at our First Touch Football sessions to those aged 50+ attending our Ladies Walking Football sessions. The club is freely available to participants and their supporters of all races, nationalities and backgrounds. The club is a part of the community and vice-versa through its participation in activities such as the Xmas light switch on and Hessle Feast.

The club's facilities are used by St Anne's School and their children with disabilities and have been used for football and all-sport activities to deliver school holiday camps for children who receive free-school meals by Ballers Academy and First Step Sports, for Football Camps by Hull City Ladies and Humber Hotshots and by a local Ladies Walking Netball team. The new building will allow us to increase the community usage to other groups for meetings, education and exercise and the club have commitments from community users in advance of building.

The football outcomes provided by the club are part of a healthy lifestyle enjoyed by all players, male and female, young and old. The club allows young people to improve their physical and mental well-being, improves children's confidence, social skills and opportunities within sport or other careers. The club contributes to the local economy and will do so increasingly with more users and greater turnover.

Our Partners

Hessle Rangers are working with East Riding of Yorkshire County Council, the East Riding County Football Association, the Football Foundation and St Anne's School to deliver this project.