Many years have passed since the Foundation committee and members decided to redevelop the playing fields at Crookhall back to a decent playing standard.
The Foundation worked hard to raise funds to have sport back in the village after a gap of over 30 years. Groundwork West Durham and Darlington and Derwentside C.V.S. worked on our behalf with the support of our then County Councillors, Bob Young and Jane Brown. Up to 2009 the funding enabled us to erect a fence around the site and children’s play area.In 2010 funding from Durham County Councillors Bob Young and Jane Brown and Durham County Council’s URI scheme enabled work to commence on the fields redevelopment. Works on the Playing fields started in March 2011 including site levelling to enable the installation of a cricket square and the planting of trees and shrubs around part of the perimeter.
In February 2012 our Founder Beck Dixon and Councillor Jane Brown were delighted to open the new Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) achieved with funding from the Big Lottery Fund .
Following days of hard work mowing and strimming by friends and volunteers the redeveloped field was officially opened on 5 June 2012 by Councillor Bob Young with Beck Dixon in the attendance as part of a large community event to commemorate the Queens Jubilee. The is now one of the 2012 areas throughout the country which is designated as a Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Field. A great day was had with many events on the field including races, football shooting competitions and more culminating in Beck handing out special commemorative jubilee medals to all children who took part.
As part of the day the Foundation unveiled a plaque renaming the field as Beck’s Park as our tribute to the hard work and dedication of Beck Dixon as Founder and Secretary of our organisation, it was a very emotional occasion indeed.
Sadly this was to be the last event Beck would attend as he lost his long battle with cancer on 30 June 2012. Following a sponsored walk on the fields by young children from the village to raise funds and thanks to hard work from Paul Brown and Mark Tilney a memorial was erected on the site into which both the dedication and the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee plaques were mounted to commemorate Beck and it is at this spot annually we acknowledge him by playing the Miners Hymn Gresford when we bring his banner back from the Miners Gala.
2013 saw us awarded funding of £25,000 from the SITA Trust and the County Durham Community initiative to start the next phase of the redevelopment works involving much needed improvements to the existing play park. In September the football field was marked out and new goal posts installed thanks to Councillor Jane Brown for her assistance in funding this work. Whilst the pitch proved to be smaller than we planned it still incorporated the famous Crookhall ‘slope’ and it became the home of the Station WMC Football Team.
Work to upgrade the existing Play Park funded by Sita Trust and County Durham Community Foundation was held up as we unexpectedly had to seek planning approval. In October work on the Play Park finally started with the installation of a new path followed by new equipment and on 7 December 2013 the new Play park was re-opened by Pat Glass MP who was helped in cutting the ribbon by Jack the grandson of our Founder Beck Dixon. This was a very successful event which took place in the park and nearby Crookhall Community Centre and included a visit by Santa!
March 2014 saw us receive a service recognition award from Derwentside Rotary Club for our help with tree planting at the north end of the village for their Polio Wood a very worthy cause to enhance local environments whilst also assisting in work going on worldwide by Rotary to eradicate polio. As Assistant Secretary John was pleased to accept the award on behalf of the Foundation at the Community Centre at the end of a long day of planting.
We were involved in our own tree planting in May 2014 as part of the Big Tree Plant we worked with Groundwork North East and Cumbria to plant trees on the site at Crookhall. Members of the Foundation Executive and volunteers worked hard on the day and we just managed to get finished in advance of a very heavy downpour. Thanks go to all who helped including Michael Dynes from Derwentside Rotary who returned the favour and helped with our plant.
We ended the year with some good news that we had been successful in an application to County Durham Foundation for some equipment to assist us with maintaining the fields. The funding came from the Bob Young Grass Roots fund and enable us to purchase an aerator/spreader, trailer, roller and an additional heavy duty strimmer.
We continued to maintain the fields during the first half of 2015 until we encountered major problems with the ride on mower. However after an approach made by the Foundation to Harry Swan, Managing Director of Thomas Swan and Company a major company & employer based in the village, we were delighted to be informed that that they would purchase and donate a new mower to the Foundation to help with our work. Members of the Executive Committee officially received the mower from Harry on 3 September 2015. This has proved invaluable in our work and is still well used to the current day.
Early 2016 saw us receive planning approval for the changing rooms and storage container enabling us to continue to provide facilities for the community, we are currently examining options for a more permanent solution. We decided to relocate the football pitch to increase the size and maximise the use of the facilities as we reluctantly took a decision that due to lack of interest cricket was no longer feasible. In December we planted 4000 crocus bulbs together with Derwentside Rotary to provide some colour come spring round the memorial and the Community Centre.
2017 saw us continue our work to maintain the playing fields, MUGA and Playpark for use by the local community.
We received renewed planning permission for our changing facilities and storage facility in early 2018. In June after a delay we finally saw the installation of the new junior swings in the Play Park thanks to funding from Councillor Jane Brown.
Summer 2018 proved challenging due to the hot weather which saw us cease cutting for a short while given the dry conditions we even saw the outline of the old roundabout appear in the Play Park.
If anyone is interested in volunteering to help with our work please get in touch using the details on the contact page
One last thing if we could appeal to anyone using the field to make sure that they do not leave any objects on the playing surface or the outer grass areas as we have had problems with damage to our machinery these repairs are expensive and cause delay in maintenance both of which are costly!
Sadly in 2019 the football team decided to relocate to another pitch as we are unable to find a replacement team we have decided that we are to maintain the field as a community space to enable local residents to use the space for recreation.
The changing facilities were finally removed from the field on 9 June 2020 as they have been donated to Consett Rugby Club. We had made arrangements to remove them in March but the contractor was unable to undertake this work due to restrictions imposed to combat the Coronavirus.
Whilst adult football is no longer played junior football is to commence effective from the 2020/21 season with Delves Lane Pheonix JFC calling Becks Park home (see our Football Page for details of preparation for the season)