Woodlands became a sports facility in the late 1980s when Pearl Assurance moved its main operation from London to Peterborough and provided sport and recreation facilities for its staff; building a large sports building with hall, gym, squash courts and snooker room along with extensive social areas. The building closed in 2005 although the pitches and outdoor facilities remained in use for a few more years.

Following complex negotiation with the previous leaseholders and to enable a return to community sports use, Nene Park took over the management of Woodlands Sport pitches in 2017. Part of the original site is under the management of a local care home provider, Country Court Care, who have built a care facility onsite - Castor Lodge Care Home. They are intending to demolish the existing large unused sports building to increase their accommodation provision.

Nene Park Trust has created plans to ensure that sport can continue at Woodlands for future generations. Our plans include a new sports pavilion with dedicated changing facilities, community space and kitchen and a year-round Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) on site.

We submitted our plans to Peterborough City Council in January 2023. 

Let us know what you think of our plans.

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New Sports Pavilion

We have worked with local architects BBA and landscape architects Sheils Flynn to produce a scheme that we believe will sit sensitively in the surrounding landscape, meet the needs of current users, enable a more diverse range of sports participation on site and provide the community with a welcoming and accessible space for meetings, classes and events. 

The sports pavilion building will comprise of changing facilities and an indoor space that will house a large hall for indoor exercise activity or meetings with associated kitchen, storage and toilets. The original concept design of two buildings interlinked has now been developed with the changing facilities in a L-shape plan wrapping around the multi-function hall. 

The proposed MUGA will offer users a place for sport and recreation in all weathers throughout the year. This building will also be the Trust’s only public building in the Rural Estate area and may act as the base from which other activities could be undertaken in the surrounding landscape.

(above) Front view of the pavilion from the football pitches

   

Approach from the car park and Splash Lane                                                 Approach from Port Lane

  

   

View from the cricket pitch                                                                                        Interior of the main pavilion hall

 

Plan of the new pavillion (above)                                                                                         

We are also hoping to maximise the opportunities for the community to participate in sport onsite. Woodlands is currently home to Thorpe Wood Rangers FC and Bharat and Bretton Cricket Clubs. The inclusion of a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) will provide winter opportunities for our current teams but also provide facilities for other sports including netball.

Castor and Ailsworth Tennis Club  are also planning to join us at Woodlands and they have well developed plans to enhance the sporting offer on the site.  These including five artificial grass courts (three of which will have environmentally friendly floodlighting), two pickleball courts and two padel tennis courts. The courts will be open to all.

 

Full site plan (below) - Download a PDF here

Download our consultation leaflet here

Click here to see the detailed FAQs for the project 

Let us know what you think of our plans