The offer of a field
A group of villagers take the Parish Council up on the chance to create an association dedicated to sports and social events, based in a local farmer's field. The field is full of stones. The volunteers clear many of them by hand, and the first shelter goes up on the bare grass.
The fundraising years
Car boot sales, fetes and a sponsored bike ride, children and adults raising money in their own ways, using whatever superpower they had. Grants arrive in dribs and drabs at first, then Wyvern Waste joins in and helps immensely.
Cutting the first sod
On 12th March 2002 the diggers arrive and the first sod is cut, with the schoolchildren of Pawlett front and centre. Wyvern Waste hands over the cheque that makes the building possible, and local builders get to work.
Officially opened
The Pavilion is officially opened on 5th July 2003 by Neil Parish MEP and Andrew Ollie MD of Wyvern Waste Services Ltd, with grateful thanks to Wyvern Environmental Trust for providing capital funding. The plaque is still by the door.
Volunteers behind the bar
The committee of volunteers runs the Pavilion and the bar for the whole first year, giving their time for free. After that first year the club can afford to employ staff, and the volunteers turn to growing the sports facilities instead.
The MUGA arrives
September 2004: the diggers return to build the multi use games area, the all-weather court that two decades later becomes today's floodlit 3G.
Twenty years of the clubhouse
Two decades since the doors opened, the volunteers and bar team gather out front to mark the birthday, banner and all. Different faces to 1997, the same idea: the village, running its own place.
The 3G, made new
With wonderful support from volunteers and grants from the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Medlock Charitable Trust and an HPC-EDF grant via Somerset Community Foundation, the 3G pitch is completely re-covered. Nearly thirty years on, the village is still building its Pavilion.
Still run by the village
A registered charity with a floodlit 3G pitch, two football pitches, a cricket square, an outdoor gym, a play area and a proper village bar. Still managed and maintained by a committee of members and trustees who give their time for free.
If you have photos from the early days, the field, the fundraising, the opening, we would love to scan them and give them a home here. Bring them to the bar, or reach us via the visit page. Originals returned safely, always.