Prenton RUFC has stood as a pillar of the local community since it was formed in 1992. Standing at the bottom of a pleasant path full of wildlife and greenery, just off Prenton Dell Road, is the clubhouse and pitch. Inside are portraits of past teams and framed jerseys give visitors a taste of the club’s rich history.
Sitting outside on the porch, looking closely at his laptop whilst the sun beat down on the roof, was Gareth Knapman, Prenton RUFC’s project development manager.
With plenty of experience in managing development projects, his plan for the club and the wider Prenton area had been clear since before the COVID pandemic: “We realised there was nowhere for people to go locally.”
Over the last six years, Prenton Rugby club have been working to open the club’s site to the local area: “We built a community garden over there,” gesturing towards flower beds and gardeners tending to their work, just behind the rugby pitch.
“People can grow their own vegetables or come to the clubhouse for a bacon sandwich or just a chat. We want to bring back that community feel”.
He continued: “We’ve opened the clubhouse to the community for different functions – a wellness suite, a community kitchen, just somewhere they can call home”. Final development plans mean refurbishing the clubhouse to include a central meeting area, a new gym and an extension to the clubhouse’s main room.
Prenton RUFC’s project to turn the club into a thriving local hub raised over £1 million since plans started, with the end – a full refurbishment of the clubhouse – seemingly in sight. Mr. Knapman said: “We have a target of December 2025 for completion, based on the fundraising we’ve made.”
A short walk from the pitch was the site’s clay pit. A wide expanse of meadow, thick with wildlife, stood Bill Shaw, John Humphreys and Mike Coffin – three of the site’s many volunteers overseeing the conservation of the land, discussing work for the morning.
They told Mersey News Live that, with funding from National Grid, they’ve helped reintroduce rare habitat to the land: Mike said: “Our aim is to reproduce what was here 30 years ago. To restore the meadow. Over the years the trees have taken over. But their work (looking to Bill and John) has been invaluable.”
He added: “The agreement with National Grid is, improve the habitat and increase visitor numbers”.
A guided tour of the meadow led the group to a pond. Pointing to the sea of mosquitos buzzing about the surface, Mike said: “We dug out the old pond. We follow the advice of Dr. Hillary Ash from the Wirral Wildlife who basically tells us what to do”.
Mr Coffin continued: “We’ve had schools days, volunteer days, the Community Payback come back regularly to help us, and to make it a better experience we’ve set up benches for quiet thought and contemplation.”
He added: “I was just sat at one the other day and someone I’d never met came and sat next to me to start conversation!”
The group indicated that certain trees in the meadow would be harder to remove due to their size, “but we are all doing the right things”, they said.
Bill, a fellow volunteer, said: “We want to make this a better site for the future, we get a lot of kids down here. We also want to return people’s memories of this place to actual fact.”
Looking up past the shade, Mr Coffin said: “Hopefully the clay pit and the rugby club will become the centre of this community, because there is very little on the estate. The local pub closed down, we’ve lost playing fields.”
He added: “There is no real community spirit on the estate anymore so hopefully we and the rugby club can create that”.
Speaking again to Gareth Knapman, he said: “We want to get people back into the community. We think it’s been lost, especially in the Prenton area.
With the completion of Prenton RUFC’s new clubhouse, after six years the vision for a community hub is seemingly on the horizon.
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