Plans submitted to turn Kingsway Park into “the bowls venue for Nottinghamshire”

Proposals to improve Kingsway Park in Kirkby in Ashfield have been submitted to the district’s planning authority. Ashfield District Council is seeking permission to build new detached changing room and bowls pavilion at the site, on Hodgkinson Way.

The proposals will see the partial demolition of the existing changing room and cade building and an improved and extended main car park – doubling the number of car spaces from 60 to 120.

The plans have been drawn up by the architects behind the new science Discovery Centre and Planetarium development at Sutton in Ashfield’s Sherwood Observatory, the Bingham based AnotherKind Architects Studio.

In a detailed report, known as a “design and access statement” submitted as part of the planning application, the architects state that prior to becoming a park, the land was owned by Catherine Hodgkinson of Kirkby House and known as 16 Acre Field. It was used as grazing land for horses.

Ashfield District Council purchased the site as a public playing field for the community and laid out the park in 1930. Locals still often refer to the park as The Acre.

The original layout included eight tennis courts, two large bowling greens, putting greens, areas for netball and hockey, two football fields, a kick about area and a large aviary. There was a large play area and a paddling pool / sand pit, children’s toilets and changing rooms.  A central building provided refreshments, showers, toilets and a ticket office for equipment hire. Sunday band concerts were held.  The garden area was laid out as a rose garden with a small pond. 

Staffing at the park was reduced in World War II and the decades that followed saw a gradual decline, and by the 1970’s the play area was run down.

The report says that Kingsway Park covers nearly nine hectares and provides “important sports and recreational facilities for local residents” and has been subject to extensive re-development over the course of the past five years.

“The developments have included improvements to the existing play area (including the hard surfacing around the café), a new youth area, new skate park and parkour area, improvements to the existing tennis courts and MUGA [multi-use games areas], relaying of the synthetic sports pitch including new boundary fencing, improvements to the grass football pitches and upgrades to the park’s footpath network.”

The architects state that the new bowls pavilion would “enable Kingsway Park to become the bowls venue for Nottinghamshire, creating a reputation of the site as a prestigious Bowls locale.”

Ashfield District Council is continuing to consult on other plans for redeveloping football pitches at Kingsway Park and other locations in the district, having identified a shortfall of youth nine-aside and 11-aside pitches. They are working towards an an application for funding from the Football Foundation, which they expect to submit in July.

A decision on the current planning application is expected by 21 May.