Southwold Rugby Club

Southwold Sports Pavilion Hire

The splendid new ‘William Godell Pavilion’ on Southwold Common is now open & available for hire.
The excellent club room (13m2), with views over the common & Sole Bay, is suitable for a range of activities including keep-fit, yoga, dance, children’s parties, dinners, meetings, conferences & receptions.
Bar & catering facilities are also available & there is ample parking.
For availability & further details please contact: 01986 785389.

Two write ups in the Lowestoft Journal about the new pavilion,
Pavilion prepared - 26 September 2008
New sports pavilion opened - 29 September 2008

Also a write up on the Pavilion on the Rugby Football Union web site
New Pavilion Ready After 5 years of hard work, local sports people are celebrating the construction of a new sports pavilion on Southwold Common. The new building will be owned by the Southwold and Reydon Recreational Development Council (the RDC), a local charity. The charity has recently received a 50 year lease for the site from the Southwold Common charity which administers the land received under the will of William Godell in 1509 on behalf of the town's inhabitants and other users of this very special open space.

The Ł375,000 building will be home to Southwold's cricket, football and rugby teams, although Sole Bay United FC has longer term aspirations to relocate to Reydon if money becomes available to enhance their facilities there. In addition to the Southwold Common charity, a deep debt of gratitude is owed to the financial backers of this project.

This project would never have got off the ground without the support of Southwold Town Council. Not only did they support the project through the planning permission process, but they were one of two initial backers to the tune of Ł50,000. The other core supporter was the Southwold Trust. They have kept open a Ł75,000 pledge for 5 years. This pledge includes monies previously donated to the failed "Splash" project.

Armed with these two pledges, the RDC had hoped that other money would quickly swell their coffers. Despite a couple of near misses this did not materialise. In despair, Robert Temple, President of Southwold RFC wrote to the President of the RFU. To his delight the RFU machine ably supported by the Eastern Counties Community Rugby team threw its full weight behind the project. This culminated in a Grant from the RFU on behalf of the National Sports Foundation of Ł204,321. A 10 year interest free loan of Ł38,000 from the Rugby Football Foundation was the final piece in the financial jigsaw.