Charterhouse Invest in Major Sports Development

The redevelopment of sports facilities is well underway at Charterhouse, following a two-year planning period. The school’s plans to extend its outdoor sports surfaces and tennis courts are part of their ongoing scheme of continual improvements to facilities for its pupils.

Charterhouse is set in 200 acres and most of the heritage site is listed. Phase 1 of the sports facility improvements include the installation of 2 high quality sand dressed hockey pitches, one will be irrigated, 6 tennis courts, and with associated landscaping. Some alterations to the schools existing golf course were necessary to accommodate the scheme. All playing pitches will have floodlighting. Phase 2 will be the building of a new pavilion with 360 degree viewing area.

Phase 3 of the development will be an extension and new carpark to the schools Queens Sports Centre which was opened by the Queen in 1997.

The school appointed specialist design and build contractors, Smith Construction Ltd, who started the first phase of the work in September of this year, and are on target to complete the work in 16 weeks. Smith Construction is undertaking the substantial £1.3m contract, the overall scheme costing in excess of £2m.

The facilities were planned two years ago, following extremely generous donations by parents of pupils at the school.

The overall design for the state- of- the- art facilities was developed after careful consultation between Sports Masters and Managers of the Queens Sports Centre, with significant input from the Estates Bursar and Grounds Manager. David Rhodes of Tractionsport has been appointed as lead consultant and project manager.

Civil Engineers Smith Construction was recommended for inclusion on the school’s project tender list due to their 30 years’ experience and in-house engineering capabilities.

Estate Bursar, Laszlo Dudas said "Smiths’ project and design team had an excellent grasp of what we wanted to achieve here at Charterhouse, right from the start, and they provided a very competitive tender, with cost effective solutions to our specific design needs. They provided the final pitch and court construction designs, along with technical calculations for the sustainable site drainage scheme. They also appreciated the very sensitive nature of construction on a Heritage site, and they appreciate that conservation is a huge priority to us. Smiths’ construction team carried out sensitive enabling works and tree protection before anything else could be started, and they worked with us to satisfy thirty-seven planning conditions."

The two sand dressed hockey pitches will be surfaced using Evolution, a high performance, quality, artificial grass surface supplied by Tiger turf Ltd. The surfaces will be installed to meet the International Hockey Federation Standards to National Level. The principal playing area will be green, and the run-off areas terracotta. There will also be 2 warm up areas in the same product.

Ken Smith, Managing Director of Smith Construction, said "The project at Charterhouse is extremely important to us, and having the opportunity to work on such a prestigious and challenging development is tremendous. We are focusing on meeting the school’s exacting standards, and looking forward to delivering their facilities in the New Year."